Impacts of air pollution on farmers’ subjective satisfaction in China’s ore and agricultural zone

Understanding the relationship between air pollution and farmers’ subjective satisfaction in ore–agriculture zone is crucial for rural revitalization and improving farmers’ well-being in China. However, existing research lacks multi-perspective and multi-time-frame analyses of this relationship. This study develops a three-dimensional satisfaction framework encompassing life, environmental, and government dimensions and adopts a multi-temporal approach covering short-, medium-, and long-term horizons. Using data from air pollution measurements and questionnaire surveys (n = 600) focusing on farmers in the ore-agriculture zone. An ordinary least squares (OLS) method is applied to assess the effect of the air quality index (AQI) on farmers’ subjective satisfaction across different time frames in the region. The results indicate the following: (1) Air pollution significantly reduces farmers’ subjective satisfaction, encompassing life satisfaction, atmospheric environmental satisfaction, and government satisfaction. (2) The short-term effects of air pollution on farmers’ subjective satisfaction are insignificant or weakly negatively significant, while medium-term and long-term exposure to air pollution results in a significant reduction in subjective satisfaction, with the most pronounced negative impact observed during medium-term exposure. (3) Individual characteristics and socio-economic factors show significant heterogeneous effects on subjective satisfaction. Above results further illustrate the extension of environmental perception theory to rural resource-dependent areas. These findings provide constructing a multi-dimensional and multi-time-frame analytical framework to fill the gap of single-perspective or long-term-focused satisfaction research. The government should regard mid-term air pollution control as a core task of rural revitalization; value farmers’ subjective evaluations of governance work; and strengthen rural infrastructure investments including housing conditions, water quality, and transportation accessibility to mitigate the negative impacts of air pollution.