Energy Consumption Structure and Influencing Factors of Farmers in China from the Perspective of Labor Transfer

Jiaojiao Wu; Chen Qing; Wenfeng Zhou; Shili Guo; Dingde Xu

doi:10.3390/ijerph20021430

Energy Consumption Structure and Influencing Factors of Farmers in China from the Perspective of Labor Transfer

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jan 12;20(2):1430. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20021430.

Authors

Jiaojiao Wu^{1

2

3}, Chen Qing⁴, Wenfeng Zhou⁴, Shili Guo⁵, Dingde Xu^{4

6}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
³ UNEP-International Ecosystem Management Partnership (UNEP-IEMP), Beijing 100101, China.
⁴ College of Management, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China.
⁵ College of Economics, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu 610074, China.
⁶ Sichuan Center for Rural Development Research, Chengdu 611130, China.

Abstract

Under the background of carbon peak and carbon neutralization, the transformation and upgrading of energy consumption structure is crucial to achieve sustainable environmental development. Based on the questionnaire data of 1080 farmers in Sichuan province in 2021, the IV-Probit model was used to explore the impact of labor from off-farm employment on farmers' energy consumption structure and its specific mechanism. The results show the following: (1) the overall proportion of off-farm employment is not high, only 23%; in cooking energy, the most farmers use high-quality energy, accounting for up to 94%; (2) in addition to high-quality energy, off-farm employment of labor force is positively and significantly correlated with the remaining six types of energy consumption structure. The results of a heterogeneity analysis show that the proportion of off-farm employment of farmers with a high education level and above has the greatest positive effect on the use of high-quality energy; (3) the results of the mediating effect show that the off-farm employment can affect the energy consumption structure of farmers through the two paths of annual cash income and population structure.

Keywords: China; energy structure; off-farm employment; the countryside.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Agriculture* / methods
China
Farmers*
Farms
Humans
Income

Grants and funding

We gratefully acknowledge financial support from Special Program for Cultivating Excellent Young Talents under the Dual Support Plan of Sichuan Agricultural University, Key research base project of Sichuan Province Philosophy and Social Science (SC22EZD038) and Research interest Training program for College students (2121993005).