Land endowment, farming stickiness, and green production behavior: Based on panel data of “Hundreds of Villages and Thousands of Households” in Jiangxi Province

During the critical period of agricultural green transformation and development, an in-depth exploration of the impact of land endowment on the green production behavior of farmers and the inherent logic of these choices is of great significance. Based on the survey data of “Hundreds of Villages and Thousands of Households” in Jiangxi Province in 2018, 2021, and 2023, we investigated the impact and mechanism of land endowment on green production behavior by using the fixed effect model, mediation effect model, and moderating effect model, and the robustness test and heterogeneity analysis were conducted. The results showed that 1) land endowment had a significant positive impact on the green production behavior of farmers, and an increase in land endowment promoted the adoption of green production behavior. The results hold even after the robustness test and endogeneity discussion. 2) Land endowment affected green production behavior by influencing their farming stickiness. In the process of the impact of land endowment on green production behavior, both agricultural labor time and willingness to continue farming played a partial mediating role. Among these, willingness to continue farming contributed the most to the mediation effect and was the main indirect factor motivating farmers to implement green production behavior. 3) Agricultural green production subsidy positively moderated the impact of land endowment on green production behavior of farmers. The higher the agricultural green production subsidy, the stronger the promotional effect of land endowment on adoption of green production behavior. 4) The impact of land endowment on green production behavior exhibited heterogeneity in terms of farming year and production purpose, significantly promoting the green production behavior of farmers in short farming year and subsistence consumption groups. Based on these findings, policy formulation should focus on improving the land endowment of farmers in terms of quantity, quality, and right, perfecting the land transfer market and intermediary service system, optimizing labor division and resources allocation, improving the green ecologically oriented agricultural subsidy system, and implementing differentiated measures for different groups of farmers to comprehensively enhance the adoption level of green production behavior.