Rural green development is an inevitable choice and driving force for rural revitalization. The effective participation of farmers is the internal driving force for green development. Based on an extended theory of planned behavior model and 592 survey data collected from respondents in 26 administrative villages of Zhejiang and Henan Province,the structural equation model and the Bootstrap method were used to investigate the multiple mediating roles of farmers’ behavior willingness and cultural identity between cognition and behavior response in rural green development. The results showed that:1) attitudes toward the behavior,subjective norms and behavior control of the farmer households jointly acted on the behavioral willingness and cultural identity,which were in turn translated into behavioral response. Compared with behavioral willingness,cultural identity showed a stronger specific mediating effect; 2) farmers’ behavioral willingness and cultural identity played a chain mediating role in the relationship between cognition and behavioral response,but there was a certain shadowing effect; 3) subjective norms had the strongest positive effect on cultural identity and behavioral willingness,while behavioral control had a negative effect on behavioral willingness. In order to guide farmers to actively participate in rural green development,we should focus on strengthening the implementation of policies to form a demonstration role while focusing on enhancing the publicity effect,guiding rural collective members to regain a sense of security and belonging in a diverse social context,and improving the behavioral conditions of farmers’ participation in rural green development,so as to reduce the restrictiveness of behavioral ability.