Identifying critical factors influencing the safety and quality related behaviors of pig farmers in China

Abstract

Food safety risk has become more of a social risk associated with human behaviors. In China, pig farmers, affected by economic incentives, will tend to intentionally break food safety rules. They may add excessive feed additives, use veterinary drugs illegally, or even randomly dump dead pigs into rivers. The behaviors of pig farmers have a direct impact on the safety and quality of pork, public health and the environment. Therefore, an empirical study was conducted on the behaviors of pig farmers in Jiangsu and Anhui Provinces of China. In this paper, we analyzed the pork safety and quality related behaviors of pig farmers. Using a multivariate probit model, we identified the critical factors of these behaviors. The results demonstrated that the years of farming experience had a significantly negative effect on farmers’ safety related behaviors. However, the effect of farming experience on quality related behaviors was not significant. The influences from the scale of farming and specialization were complex, and the different knowledge of pig farmers affected their safety or quality related behaviors accordingly. Therefore, relevant government departments should avoid blindly expanding the farming scale, and educating farmers may be an effective way to improve management performance.