The influences of China's Cultivated Land Fertility Protection Subsidy policy on farmers' agro-eco-environmental protection behavior: an application of the extended theory of planned behavior.

The Cultivated Land Fertility Protection Subsidy (CLFPS) policy, introduced in China in 2015, has a clear goal of agro-eco-environmental protection (AEEP). It is one of the symbolic policies by which traditional agricultural policies are adapted towards an environment-friendly orientation. Since it is an inclusive policy that provides subsidies directly to farmers, the effect of the CLFPS policy on AEEP depends on the level of farmers' behavioral response to AEEP under the policy. However, in addition to external factors such as policy, internal factors such as attitude are crucial for farmers' AEEP behavior. Based on this, this study innovatively introduces the key variable of policy satisfaction (PS) into the classical theory of planned behavior (TPB), and constructs an extended TPB theoretical framework. This effectively makes up for the lack of traditional TPB in the measurement dimension of policy factors, and provides a new analytical perspective and research path for the study of policy impact mechanisms at the micro level. Based on the extended TPB, this study analyzes the influences of CLFPS policy on farmers' AEEP behavior and its influence path. Then, this study explores the main factors influencing farmers' AEEP behavioral response under the combined effect of external factors (PS) and internal factors. This study found that PS significantly indirectly influences farmers' AEEP behavior. The influence path is "PS → attitude → behavioral intention (BI) → behavior" and "PS → BI → behavior." Second, perceptual behavioral control is the most critical factor influencing farmers' AEEP behavior, followed by BI. Combined with the "positive attitude, strong intention, negative behavior" state of farmers in the AEEP, this study believes practical issues such as costs, income, and AEEP-related technology that farmers face are vital to limiting their AEEP behavior. In the future, the government should improve the AEEP effectiveness of the CLFPS policy from the perspective of policy optimization and guarantee.