Based on the survey data of 420 vegetable farmers in China, the logit model is used to analyze farmers’ adoption motivation of pollution-free vegetable farming and quantify the degree to which pollution-free vegetable farming is the result of economic benefits, information acquisition, moral obligation incentives or a combination of these motivations. The results reveal that besides the effects of non-farm income and vegetable acreage in farm characteristics, farmers’ adoption of pollution-free vegetable farming is mainly motivated by economic, informational and moral incentives. Specifically, pollution-free vegetable price, economic support from the governments, joining rural economic organizations and market supervision are verified to affect farmers’ adoption positively. Relative to the incentives from information acquisition and moral obligation, economic benefits play a greater role in promoting farmers’ pollution-free vegetable farming. Economic support from the governments has the biggest impact on adopting pollution-free vegetable farming. Therefore, pollution-free vegetable farming may be promoted towards a profit-driven way. Furthermore, it is necessary to explore a joint mechanism between farmers and rural economic organizations, and provide agricultural extension services with a joint goal of agri-food yield and safety. Market supervision also needs to be strengthened by improving relevant laws and rules and implementing them more strictly. This study contributes to identify the factors affecting farmers’ PFVF adoption. The results show that farmers are mainly motivated by multiple objectives including economic benefits, information acquisition and moral obligation. The research reveals that the assumption of economic motive alone may be inadequate in the understanding of farmers’ PFVF adoption. Pollution-free vegetable price, economic support from the governments, joining rural economic organizations, market supervision and vegetable acreage have significantly positive impacts on farmers’ adoption and the effect of non-farm income is significantly negative. Moreover, relative to the motivations of information acquisition and moral obligation, the incentives from economic benefits play a greater role.
