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Simple Summary: African swine fever (ASF) has a significant impact on the pig industry, leading to drastic fluctuations in the supply and price of live pigs on the market, leading to substantial economic losses for farmers. As China enters the 'post-ASF' era of regular epidemic prevention and control, the behavior of farmers becomes crucial for effectively preventing and controlling major animal epidemics. To analyze the current situation and factors influencing farmers' epidemic prevention and control behaviors, survey data were empirically analyzed. The findings indicate that the overall level of biosecurity in pig farms is low. Additionally, factors such as technical training, farm size, income share, production organization, and government inspection significantly influence farmers' adoption of biosecurity measures. Effective biosecurity measures are crucial in controlling and preventing major pig diseases, ultimately ensuring farm income and social stability. This study extracted data from 205 farmer surveys in Sichuan Province, China, to construct a biosecurity index system for pig farms. The biosecurity levels of pig farms were evaluated using a projection pursuit method to identify weak areas. The Tobit model was then utilized to determine the factors that influenced the biosecurity levels. The results indicated that the overall biosecurity levels of the pig farms were low. The study found that the average biosecurity score among farms was 0.61, with a minimum score of 0.37 and a maximum score of 0.89 (on a scale of 0 to 1). These results suggest that there are significant differences in biosecurity levels among the farms. The study also found that the scores for first-level indicators related to breeding environment management, as well as second-level indicators related to personnel management and awareness of African swine fever prevention and control, were significantly lower than scores for other indicators in the farmers' biosecurity systems. This study investigated the factors influencing biosecurity on farms and found that technical training, farm size, income share, production organization, and government inspections had a significant impact on the level of biosecurity implemented. This study emphasizes the significance of biosecurity in enhancing pig farm biosecurity and its role in improving farm resilience to major animal diseases like African swine fever. It also provides valuable insights for policymakers to make informed decisions regarding related policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: An animal epidemic poses a severe threat to the economic development of a country. Pig farmers are crucial in controlling the spread of viral infections in pigs. As a crucial component of the biosecurity system, selecting proper cleaning and disinfection (C&D) procedures is a dynamic and long-term decision that requires a higher knowledge base among pig farmers. In this study, we collected data from 333 pig farmers in the Sichuan Province of China—a region significantly affected by the African swine fever (ASF) virus. The collected data were analyzed to elucidate the mechanism of the impact of epidemic prevention training on enhancing pig farmers' adoption of C&D procedures. The empirical results showed that epidemic prevention training promotes the adoption of C&D procedures among pig farmers. In addition, biosecurity cognition plays a partially mediating role in epidemic prevention training, influencing the adoption of regular and comprehensive C&D procedures. African Swine Fever (ASF) is a highly infectious disease, severely affecting domestic pigs and wild boar. It has significantly contributed to economic losses within the pig farming industry. As a critical component of biosecurity measures, the selection of cleaning and disinfection (C&D) procedures is a dynamic and long-term decision that demands a deeper knowledge base among pig farmers. This study uses a binary logit model to explore the effect of epidemic prevention training on the adoption of C&D procedures among pig farmers with irregular and regular C&D procedures based on micro-survey data obtained from 333 pig farmers from Sichuan. The endogeneity issue was handled using propensity score matching, resulting in solid conclusions. In addition, the critical mediating impact of biosecurity cognition was investigated using a bootstrap analysis. The empirical study demonstrated that epidemic prevention training encourages pig farmers to adopt C&D procedures, with biosecurity cognition significantly mediating. Furthermore, epidemic prevention training was more likely to promote the adoption of C&D procedures among pig farmers with shorter breeding experiences and those having breeding insurance. Our study emphasized the importance of implementing epidemic prevention training to improving pig farmers' biosecurity cognition and promoting the adoption of C&D procedures. The results included suggested references for preventing ASF and the next epidemic of animal diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As pesticide abuse becomes increasingly serious worldwide, it is necessary to pay attention to the biopesticide adoption behavior of agricultural producers. It is worth verifying whether agricultural cooperatives, as training organizations sharing the same social network with farmers, can promote the adoption of biopesticides through their technology diffusion function. Therefore, based on survey data of 837 citrus producers in Sichuan Province, China, the IV-probit regression model and a mediation effects model were used to empirically test the impact of technical training on farmers' adoption of biopesticides in addition to its mechanism, considering the farmers' perception of technology as the mediation variable. The results show that (a) participation in technical training can significantly enhance the probability of the adoption of biopesticides; (b) farmers' perceptions of biopesticides' economic and health benefits play a partial mediating role in the relationship; and (c) technical training has more significant effects on biopesticides adoption behavior for a household with higher-educated household heads, lower household total income, and smaller household size, relative to their counterparts. This study provides evidence for establishing relevant policy to encourage the full adoption of the technical training function of agricultural cooperatives and popularize the use of biopesticides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]