Effect Of Collective Action On The Adoption Of Soil And Water Conservation Measures

The soil and water conservation measures can serve to prevent soil erosion,increase land productivity,relieve poverty and transform farming.The extension of soil and water conservation measures in the Loess Plateau is significant for ensuring the safety of drinking water,flood control and land quality,realizing China’s ecological security and food security,and promoting the sustainable development of modern agriculture and rural economy.The output of implementing water and soil conservation measures includes both agricultural products and ecological products.Agricultural products are valuable commodities sold in the market,while ecological products are public and cannot realize market value automatically.As a result,measures of soil and water conservation with characteristics of positive externality are often implemented through collective action.The collective action functions to mobilize resources,share costs,coordinate supervision and attain scale economy,and it may also influence farmers’ adoption of soil and water conservation measures.The existing research focuses on explaining the problem of low adoption rate from the perspective of compensation and incentive,but the public product attribute of soil and water conservation measures is often ignored.Therefore,it is difficult to explain the low adoption rate of soil and water conservation measures for farmers who are enthusiastic about participating in river basin ecological governance.Solving the problem of low adoption rate of soil and water conservation measures needs to solve the collective action dilemma.Then,under the current system of China,how does collective action affect the adoption of soil and water conservation measures? What is the mechanism by which this effect is exerted? The answer to the above questions is the key to understanding the mechanism for farmers to adopt water and soil conservation measures.From the perspective of collective action and based on relevant researches at home and abroad,the theories of public product,farmers’ behavior and agricultural technology diffusion,this paper summarizes the current situation and existing problems of the adoption of soil and water conservation measures in sample areas,selects the appropriate proxy variable,constructs the measure system of farmers’ participation degree of collective action,explores the internal mechanism and influence effect of collective action on farmers’ willingness,waiting time,behavior and effect of the adoption of soil and water conservation measures,and then puts forward the countermeasure and suggestion that promote the adoption according to the survey data of 849 farmer households in Shaanxi,Gansu and Ningxia province.The main conclusions of this paper are as follows:(1)Among the 849 valid samples obtained in this survey,44.52% of farmers are willing to invest in soil and water conservation measures,and 45.82% are willing to work for soil and water conservation measures.The average amount of willing investment in soil and water conservation measures is 134 yuan per mu,while the average days of willing work for soil and water conservation measures is 20 days per mu.The waiting time of farmers for different soil and water conservation measures is quite different.The average waiting time of terraced farmers is about 16.5 years.The average waiting time of farmers using water-saving irrigation technology is 8 years,the average waiting time for farmers using mulch and afforestation is about 2 years,and the average waiting time for furrow and ridging farmers is less than half a year.From the perspective of farmers’ adoption species,only 7.89% of the total number of samples adopt all the five measures.Farmers using four measures account for 13.55%,farmers using three measures account for 33.33%,farmers using two measures account for 14.84%,and farmers using one measure and those don’t adopt account for 12.37% and 18.02,respectively.In the evaluation of effects of soil and water conservation measures on improving production efficiency,the evaluation of water-saving irrigation is the highest,followed by the evaluation of terraced fields,furrow-ridge tillage and mulching film and the evaluation of afforestation is relatively lower.In the evaluation of the effect of soil and water conservation measures on improving ecological environment,the evaluation of afforestation and water-saving irrigation on are the highest,followed by the evaluation of terraced fields and furrow-ridge tillage,and the evaluation of mulching film is relatively low.(2)From the four dimensions of action information,action participation,action organization and action effect,this paper selects 14 agent variables,including the understanding degree of farmers on the contents,meanings,rules and the fund’s usage of the village collective action.These variables systematically and comprehensively reflect farmers’ participation in collective action.According to the statistical results of the original variables of collective action,most farmers in the survey area have a certain understanding of the significance and the rules of collective action,but don’t understand of the reward and punishment system of collective action and the use of collective funds.Farmers’ participation rate of collective training,investment and work proportion of collective activities are relatively high.Most farmers take part in collective action passively.They are less enthusiastic about organizing and initiating the supply of public goods and the management of public resources and environment.The evaluation of the function of collective action is not high,and the function of village collective action doesn’t be displayed very well.According to the regional differences in the scores of collective action,the scores of Ningxia is higher than Gansu,and the scores of Gansu is higher than Shaanxi.According to the comparison of the scores of action information,the scores of Gansu is higher than Ningxia,and the scores of Ningxia is higher than Shaanxi.According to the comparison of the scores of action participation,the scores of Gansu is higher than Shaanxi,and the scores of Shaanxi is higher than Ningxia.According to the comparison of the scores of action organization,the scores of Ningxia is higher than Shaanxi,and the scores of Shaanxi is higher than Gansu.According to the comparison of the scores of action effect,the scores of Ningxia is higher than Shaanxi,and the scores of Shaanxi is higher than Gansu.(3)Through the empirical test of the influence of collective action on farmers’ willingness to using soil and water conservation measures,it is found that the participation degree of collective action has a significant positive effect on farmers’ willingness to invest in soil and water conservation measures.If farmers have higher participation degree of collective action of farmers,their willingness to invest in soil and water conservation measures will be stronger,and the money they are willing to invest will be more.The participation degree of collective action has a significant positive effect on farmers’ willingness to work for soil and water conservation measures.If farmers have higher participation degree of collective action,their willingness to participate in soil erosion control will be stronger,and the days they are willing to spend on soil and water conservation measures will be more.(4)Through the empirical study of the effect of collective action on the waiting time of adopting soil and water conservation measures,it is found that there is a significant negative correlation between the collective action and the waiting time of building terraces,using water-saving irrigation technology,using mulching film,planting trees and adopting furrow-ridge tillage.Collective action can effectively shorten the waiting time for farmers to adopt the above measures.Through the comparison of the coefficient of waiting time model and the estimation of the dose-response function of different soil and water conservation measures,it can be seen that the reducing effect of collective action on the waiting time of different soil and water conservation measures takes on greater heterogeneity.Among them,collective action had the greatest effect on the reduction of waiting time for farmers to build terraces,followed by the reduction of waiting time for adopting water-saving irrigation technology,and relatively weak effect on the reduction of waiting time for using mulch,planting trees and adopting furrow-ridge tillage.(5)Through the empirical study of the effect of collective action on the adoption behavior of soil and water conservation measures,it is found that collective action has positive promoting effect on farmers’ adoption decision of terrace,water-saving irrigation and afforestation,but has no significant effect on the adoption decision of mulching and furrow-ridge tillage.Through the comparison of the coefficients of decision models for different soil and water conservation measures,it can be seen that collective action has the greatest impact on the adoption decision of water-saving irrigation technology,followed by afforestation,and the effect on the adoption decision of building terraces is relatively smaller.Collective action also has a significant positive impact on the types of soil and water conservation measures adopted by farmers.The higher the farmers’ participating degree in collective action,the higher the farmers’ enthusiasm to participate in soil erosion control,and the more types of soil and water conservation measures adopted.(6)Through empirical research on the effect of collective action on the adoption of soil and water conservation measures,it is found that while collective action has a direct impact on farmers’ production efficiency,it can also increase farmers’ production efficiency by increasing the types of soil and water conservation measures adopted.Therefore,collective action has a significant effect on improving the production efficiency of soil and water conservation measures.The impacts of collective action on the ecological effect of different soil and water conservation measures are quite different.Collective action has a significant promoting effect on the ecological effects of terraced fields,water-saving irrigation technology and afforestation,but it has no obvious effect on the ecological effect of mulching and furrow-ridge tillage.In addition,through the comparison of coefficient of ecological effect model,it can be found that collective action has the largest effect on the ecological effect of afforestation,the effect on ecological effect of terraced fields takes second place,and the effect on the ecological effect of water-saving irrigation technology is relatively small.(7)The government should strengthen farmers’ consciousness of soil and water conservation through popularizing the knowledge of soil and water conservation,foster elite farmers and improve the collective action mobilization mechanism,establish rules for collective action participation and build a cost-sharing mechanism for public goods,optimize the policy environment and encourage farmers to carry out soil and water erosion control through mutual assistance and cooperation,improve the ecological compensation system for soil and water conservation and promote the adoption of water and soil conservation measures by farmers,carry out technical promotion service,improve the effect of soil and water conservation measures and alleviate the plight of soil and water loss control in the Loess Plateau area.