How To Promote Farmers To Plant Green Manure In Southern China?

Sustainable agriculture is one of the important solutions to solve the problems in ecology and the environment,especially soil degradation.Farmers change their pattern of agricultural production from natural production to high-efficiency production by using agrochemical products.When the development of agrochemical products proliferated in the world,China started to massively use agrochemical products since 1978.However,the use of agrochemical inputs replaced the planting of green manure,but the excessive use of agrochemical products may has negative effect for soil degradation.In fact,Guangxi and Hunan provinces have the long history of plating green manure.Now,the practice of planting green manure does not only provide the restoration of soil fertility,especially the soil chemo-physical properties,but also it can ameliorate farmers' income,air quality,the quality of arable land and agricultural products,reduce pesticide and fertilizer use,and also contribute to fight against diseases and weeds.This paper aimed to assess how to promote farmers to plant green manure in Southern China,evidence from Guangxi and Hunan Provinces.During the spring and autumn semester of 2018,a total of1082 farmers have been surveyed in Guangxi and Hunan.We have used a questionnaire and the face-toface interview method.We used Probit model to investigate farmers' willingness to plant green manure,logit model to investigate farmers' behavior to plant green manure and Contingent Valuation Model(CVM)to study farmers' Willingness-To-Accept(WTA)eco-compensation of green manure ecosystem services and associated factors.Through econometrical analysis,the determinant factors influencing the willingness of farmers to extend planting green manure in the future,willingness of farmers to plant green manure without subsidies,behavior of farmers to plant green manure,and Willingness-To-Accept(WTA)eco-compensation have been analyzed.The main conclusions are mentioned as following:The results of the study revealed that more than 69.72% of farmers were willing to extend planting green manure in the future.The determinant factors affecting farmers willingness to extend planting green manure in the future were the gender,the level of education,the labor,relative advice for planting green manure,neighbors advice for planting green manure,the advice of village cadre for planting green manure,the farmer's knowledge that green manure affected the quality of yields and green manure effect on the quality of land.The findings of this study showed that 47.63% farmers were willing to plant green manure without subsidies.The factors influencing farmers' willingness to plant green manure without subsidies were the age,the level of education,green manure effect on farm income,green manure effect on saving fertilizers,green manure effect on the quality of land and village cadres' advice for planting green manure.The results of our research showed that 50.6% of farmers had planted green manure in their farmland,and 49.3 % did not plant.The determinant factors influencing farmers' behavior to plant green manure were the age of farmers,level of education,the role of the government to promote green manure,eco-compensation through subsidizing green manure,green manure effect on saving fertilizers and pesticides.The findings of this research showed that 55.9% farmers had a willingness-To-Accept(WTA)ecocompensation of(0-255] RMB/mu.The determinant factors influencing farmers' Willingness-To-Accept(WTA)eco-compensation was level of education,labor,the arable land,farm income,subsidy,green manure effect on the quality of yields and knowledge of green manure effect on the quality of local air.Considering socioeconomic characteristics of farmers,based on the survey,the average age of farmers was 54 years old.The age of farmers ranged between 20 and 90 years old.The annual income of 69.87% of farmers ranged between 2000 and 60000 RMB.The sample mean was 120,300 RMB.The average of the current standard subsidy and those of farmers WTA were 53.53 RMB and 195.60 RMB/mu,respectively.According to the results of this study,the actual context of planting green manure is complex.Firstly,the use of agrochemical products increased in the last decades.Secondly,49.3% farmers did not plant to plant green manure for different reasons such as the level of knowledge of green manure ecosystem services and the actual standard subsidy was not enough.Third,some socioeconomic factors barred/opened farmers' behavior change,such as the age of farmers,the level of education,the arable land,and the number of human workforces of 16-64 years old who committed in agriculture.All those factors affected farmers' behavior to plant green manure.In this situation,“How farmers' behavior could be changed to restore planting green manure in Guangxi and Hunan provinces effectively?” This study highlighted that perception and behavior of farmers and willingness to accept eco-compensation(subsidy)were keys factors that affected farmers to plant green manure in southern China.Different policy suggestions answer this question and focus on increasing farmers' perception and behavior change by motivational strategies:(1)It is suggested that the local government should take into account socio-economic status during the construction of green manure development strategy in Southern China and organize the training and awareness to increase farmers' knowledge about green manure practice benefits.Moreover,the local government adjusts the standard subsidy rate to the average of farmers' willingness to accept in order to increase farmers' enthusiasm to plant green manure in the future,and intensified the awareness to convince farmers to plant green manure voluntarily to limit the high expenses from the government.(2)The rural area is characterized by smallholding and low income.The consolidation of farmlandcan promote farmers' behavior to plant green manure.Thus,a study of farmers ‘willingness to combine farmland could give enough lightening to the future development of planting green manure;(3)According to the results of this study,the cost-benefit analysis of planting green manure can provide useful reference for determining standard subsidy rate(SSR)for eco-compensation of green manure ecosystem services in the future.