Quantitative understanding of farmers' behaviour in pesticide use is critical to enhance sustainability of chemical
pest control and protect farmers' health and the environment. However, reports on the levels of knowledge and
awareness of farmers and the practices of pesticide use are often insufficient. Here, we conducted a comprehensive
analysis on the effects of knowledge and awareness of farmers as well as the influence of the associated
stakeholders (i.e. pesticide retailers and the government) on farmers' behaviour in pesticide use by using a detailed
survey of 307 agricultural households (79 grain farms, 65 fruit farms, 53 vegetable farms and 110
mixed-crop farms) in the Wei River basin in northern China. Eight protective behaviours (PBs) were exhibited
by farmers. Careful and safe storage of pesticides, changing clothes or showering after applying pesticides, and
reading instructions of the container labels before application were the most frequent PBs. Vegetable and fruit
farmers had higher levels of education and knowledge than grain farmers, but the former were lesswilling to reduce
pesticide use because of fear of low profits and lack of trust in the government and pesticide retailers. The
PBs of farmers were strongly affected by the perception of the consequences of their behaviour (standardised
path coefficient, SPC = 0.42) and the level of farmers' knowledge (SPC = 0.33). Pesticide retailers and the government
had amoderate and weak influence, respectively, on farmers' PBs, suggesting a large gap of trust among