Studies On The Factors Influencing Farm Households To Participate In The Development Of Eco-agricultural Demonstration District And The Mechanism Of Their Decision Making

Title of the thesis: Studies on the factors influencing farm households to participate in the development of Eco-agricultural Demonstration District and the mechanism of their decision Making; Author: Zhang Jiahong; Supervisor: Professor Li Ou; Specialty: Crop production; Field of research: Rural Development; College: College of Humanities and Development; Application Date: February,2004.Chinese agriculture and production as well as marketing system are facing the severe challenges with China's entering into WTO and the rapid economic globalization. It's difficult for innumerable farm households to adapt their farming systems based on the production of grain crops and marketing by themselves to the new situations. The indicator of "daily return of farming activities" put forward recently shows obviously that the production value of the household's labor is very low. So the agriculture structure must be adjusted, the management of agriculture improved, the quality and safety of the products increased, the market competitiveness strengthened and the income of the farm households raised, which are the aims of the development of the agricultural science and technology demonstration district. In the "double-chain" Eco-agriculture demonstration district, the model of "company + demonstration base + farm households" is adopted in the production and marketing, which brought about the efforts of the farm households to become better-off. The study showed that among the various factors influencing the farm households to make decisions, the operation or management performance of the company and its and services are the most important two factors. The farmers' participation in the development of the demonstration district started with a few adopters, and then the number increased after they had gained profit from the application of the new patterns of production. They are called the direct participants. While those who only do the paid work as the wage labors in demonstration district are the indirect participants. There are three models of farm households' decision making: "willing to make changes and innovations", "gaining profit as the priority" and "following the trend". The mechanisms of farm households' decision making are based on making more money, having technical advice, getting the relevant inputs from the company in credit and having guaranteed marketing service from the company. The characteristics of the farming systems have obviously changed after the farm households participated in the development, which included that the slack season became shorter, the "daily return of farming activities" was obviously increased and the farmer didn't to migrate as wage labor blindly. "Conduct production according to the order for goods, make budget of costs and benefit, determine the prices to have fanners gain more benefit" is a good mechanism for distribution of profitability. The shares of the farm households from the profits reached at 30%~50%. It helps to form an institution to commonly share the benefit and bear the risks. Appropriate recommendations are proposed for the participation of the farm households in the "company + demonstration base + farm households" model of production and marketing.