Impact of government subsidy strategies on bio-pesticide supply chain considering farmers' environmental safety preferences

This study addresses the impact of government subsidy policies and farmers' environmental safety preferences on bio-pesticides from a supply chain network perspective with consideration of economic benefits and research and development (R&D) efficiency. We formulate a supply chain network equilibrium model to characterize the competition and cooperation among the various entities in the supply chain. To solve the model, a self-adaptive projection-based prediction correction algorithm is introduced. An avermectin supply chain case is used to analyze the impacts of different subsidy strategies and farmers' preferences on the equilibrium decisions. The numerical results show that: (1) While increased R&D subsidies can improve the quality of bio-pesticides, the excessive subsidies could lead to a lower actual profitability in the supply chain; (2) farmers' environmental safety preference has a strong impetus to manufacturers' R&D investment decisions; and (3) the combinations with a high R&D subsidy ratio are more conducive to the co-development of economic and ecological benefits. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.].