The Fallow Behavior Of Farmers In Heavy Metal Polluted Region

Land fallowing provides an.important means in many regions around the world of recuperating,maintaining and improving soil fertility,and addressing overproduction,as well as ensuring the ecological conservation of land.Examples of land fallowing include the US Department of Agriculture's Conservation Reserve Program(CRP),the agri-environmental measure under the EU,s Common Agricultural Policy(CAP),Japan and Taiwan's agricultural land fallow plan,and mainland China's fallow policy from 2016.While there are differences between the main purpose of fallowing in different regions,all fallow programs focus on the behaviors of farmers to encourage them to take part in the fallow and improve the sustainability of the land.China's fallow program of heavy-metal-contaminated farmland is important for several reasons.First,heavy metal pollution of cultivated land has a significant impact on the environment and human health.Second,heavy metal contamination of cultivated land is common in many parts of China as well as some regions where metallic minerals are produced.Hence,a study of farmers'behavior for fallowing of heavy-metal-contaminated farmland can provide a reference for many regions with similar problems in China.Third,fallowing of heavy-metal-contaminated farmland is special because heavy metal pollution is harmful and farmers are likely to have a more urgent need to participate,thus reducing their compensation level expectations.Compared to the fallow policies of different countries and regions,the policy of mainland China is the simplest,with a directly formulated compensation standard for each type of fallowing irrespective of regional differences.For example,the total compensation for the fallow type in heavy metal polluted regions(mainly in Hunan Province)is 700 yuan per mu,provided to the farmers as an annual income subsidy for a three-year period.In addition to the income subsidy,China's fallow compensation policy does not contain other compensation measures.In comparison,the US,EU,and other countries and regions provide such additional compensation measures as bonuses and technical assistance.In addition,there are some other problems in China's fallowing heavy-metal-contaminated farmland.For example,the fallow participants have a low level of awareness of fallowing and hold a passive attitude towards the implementation of land fallowing.And there is a big change in the implementation plan of fallow at the local level,which reduces farmers' trust in the stability of fallowing.In seeking solutions,it is clear that,due to low level of China's rural economic development,as well as the large rural population,the fallow policies of the US,EU,and other regions are unsuited to China without modification.Moreover,while there have been many studies of the reasons why farmers join agri-environmental schemes,only a few concerns the adoption of eco-friendly agricultural production by Chinese farmers.Those involving fallow policies encouraging setting aside land to enable the recovery of heavy metal contaminated soils in China,however,are relatively rare.Thus,this study seeks to improve China's fallow policy for heavy-metal-contaminated farmland.The study was based on the field investigation of Chaling County,Hunan Province,in which a half-year investigation was conducted with farmers of pilot and non-pilot villages within the range of heavy-metal-contaminated farmland.After comparing and referring to existing farmers' behavior theories,IAD framework,SES framework,theory of planned behavior and random utility theory,a preliminary theoretical framework of farmers' participation in fallowing of heavy-metal-contaminated farmland was constructed.And the binary Logistic model,structural equation modeling,mixed Logit basic model and mixed Logit cross term model were respectively established for empirical analysis to test the analytical framework.Then we provided a reference for improving fallow policy for heavy-metal-contaminated farmland.In this paper,there is a main logic line and two auxiliary logic line.The main logic line is the presentation of the analytical framework and the demonstration of its applicability,that is,the specific research hypothesis under the analytical framework was tested by binary Logistic model,structural equation modeling,mixed Logit basic model and mixed Logit cross term model.In the concrete analysis process including two auxiliary logic line.First,specific empirical studies were conducted to respectively respond to "control the compensation variable of fallowing,study other key factors affecting farmers' fallow behavior" and "innovating compensation methods to improve incentive effect under certain budget constraints".The second is to provide detailed basis for policy recommendations and test specific policy measures through empirical research,so as to solve the existing problems in the implementation of current fallowing.The main conclusions are as follows:First,the descriptive statistical analysis of 247 sample farmers in the research area showed that most of the respondents were male,older and less educated.The farmers' subjective evaluation of the government was at a medium level,and their cognition of the implementation of fallow was poor,and their cognition of the benefits of fallowing was relatively good.The farmers' choice of fallow intention and the response of fallow behavior was acceptable.Second,the characteristics and micro-environment of farmers had an influence on the choice of farmers' intention of fallow.In terms of household characteristics,fallow farmers whose non-agricultural income accounts for more than 50%of total household income were more likely to choose to participate in fallowing.That is to say,the higher the non-agricultural income of farmers,the stronger the intention to participate in fallowing.In terms of micro-environment,a good government image could significantly promote farmers'participation in fallowing.That is to say,farmers had a higher evaluation of the government image,and their intention to participate in fallowing was stronger.Third,the behavioral psychological path of farmers' participation in fallowing followed the"cognitive judgment-behavioral intention-behavioral response".In the aspect of behavioral psychology,farmers'behavioral intention was mainly influenced by benefit cognition,subjective norm and implementation cognition.The behavioral response was affected by their behavioral intention and implementation cognition.The behavioral intention had a mediating effect between their cognitive judgment and behavioral response.There was significant correlation among benefit cognition,subjective norm and implementation cognition.Fourth,fallow rules had an impact on farmers'behavioral intention.Fallow schemes with higher income subsidies but lower management input were more likely to be selected by farmers.At the same time,it was easier to be selected by farmers to set a compensation scheme with priornty participation right,replanting insurance and long fallow years.Farmers in pilot villages were more likely to choose to participate in the new fallow scheme than those in non-pilot villages,while farmers in non-pilot villages were more likely to choose the fallow scheme with priority participation right and low management input than those in pilot villages.Fifth,the analytical framework was applicable to explain farmers' participation in fallowing.From the perspective of deconstruction of the analytical framework,the binary Logistic model,structural equation modeling and mixed Logit basic model were used to prove the applicability of the analytical framework.From the perspective of construction of the analytical framework,mixed Logit cross term model was used to prove the applicability of the analytical framework.Fallowing of heavy-metal-contaminated farmland had such problems as low cognition level of fallow policy,fixed subsidy standard for fallowing,single compensation method,implementation of fallow management measures with inadequate supervision,lack of input cost for fallow management,difficulty in maintenance and lack of emergency mechanism for flood disaster.This paper put forward some targeted policy suggestions,such as "establishing fallow culture publicity system","establishing diversified fallow compensation mechanism","perfecting the supervision and management system of fallowing","perfecting the mechanism of fallow fund guarantee"and"establishing the risk control mechanism of fallowing".The possible innovations of this paper are as follows:First,an analytical framework for farmers' fallow behavior was proposed,which had the characteristics of normative language of behavior analysis,integration of multi-disciplinary paradigm and easy to deal with complexity.and was applicable to explain farmers' participation in fallowing.The second was to provide a relatively complete empirical analysis path for the research on farmers' fallow behavior.From the two paths of deconstruction and construction of the analytical framework,a systematic empirical study was conducted by establishing binary Logistic model,structural equation modeling,mixed Logit basic model and mixed Logit cross term model.Third,it proved the role of diversified fallow compensation methods,or provided theoretical support and empirical evidence for some policy suggestions.