Developing green and low-carbon agriculture is an important and effective way to promote farmers’ income growth. Given the country’s “dual carbon” goal, the study of the impact of green and low-carbon agriculture on the income of farmers in ethnic minority areas is crucial for China to achieve the goals of socialist modernization and common prosperity. Taking Y Town, Zhijin County, Guizhou Province as an example, this paper uses the OLS regression method to empirically study the impact of green and low-carbon agricultural production methods on the income of farmers in ethnic minority mountainous agricultural areas based on the field survey data of 881 farmers. The regression results indicate that there is a positive correlation between green and low-carbon agricultural production and the household income levels of farmers; adopting green and low-carbon agricultural production technologies can effectively promote the growth of farmers’ household income. In addition, education level, health status, and the new rural social pension insurance have all had a significant effect on the income of rural households, however, due to the difficulty in establishing trust relationships, agricultural service outsourcing has reduced the household income level of farmers. As an example, the land transfer behavior in Y Town has no significant effect on increasing farmers’ incomes. Finally, it is recommended to increase fiscal and financial support as well as effectively enhancing farmers’ policy awareness and perception of green and low-carbon agricultural production technologies by improving farmers’ general trust and institutional trust by strengthening farmers’ agricultural education and skills training while cultivating technology-based farming. At the same time, it is necessary to break the geographical restrictions on land transfer scale and achieve moderate-scale land management while promoting the use and adoption of green and low-carbon agricultural production technologies, thereby improving agricultural production efficiency and product quality, and increasing the sustainable growth of farmers’ income. The main contribution of this study is to expand the research scope of green and low-carbon agriculture to ethnic minorities and mountainous agricultural areas.

Introduction: Promoting low-carbon development in agriculture is crucial for achieving agricultural modernization. One practical issue worth studying is whether outsourcing services can encourage farmers to adopt low-carbon production practices. This study analyzes the impact of pesticide outsourcing services on the low-carbon production behavior of farmers to provide China with practical recommendations.

Methods: This empirical study investigates the impact of pesticide outsourcing services on farmers’ low-carbon production behavior using survey data from 450 rice growers in the Ningxia and Shaanxi provinces by endogenous switching regressions (ESR) model.

Results and Discussion: Results showed that 1) outsourcing services have a significant negative impact on farmers’ manual weeding behavior, leading to a reduction in the frequency of manual weeding; 2) outsourcing services have a significant positive impact on farmers’ herbicide application behavior. In other words, participation in outsourcing leads to excessive pesticide application; 3) outsourcing services do not support a green and low-carbon production model where manual weeding replaces herbicide application. Due to the imperfect development of the outsourcing market in China, especially in the northwest region, the construction of outsourcing service system is lagging, and it is difficult for non-professional outsourcing services to play a driving role in green and low-carbon production for farmers, who will often choose the lower-cost mechanical application for maximum profit. The policy implication of this study is the need for a comprehensive and objective understanding of the impact and role of pesticide outsourcing services on farmers’ low-carbon production behavior. This understanding can help improve the market, policy, and other external environments for farmers to participate in outsourcing, ultimately promoting the sustainable development of green and low-carbon agriculture. This paper adds to the discussion of pesticide outsourcing services and farmers’ low-carbon production by drawing different conclusions from previous studies, providing a fresh foundation for policy-making.