Research On The Effection Of Social Capital On Farmers’ Participation Supply Behavior In Small-scale Irrigation And Water Conservancy Facilities

Irrigation and water conservancy facilities play an indispensable role in the sustainable development of agriculture in rural areas. In recent years, due to the problem of investment mechanism, the supplier, and management and maintenance mechanism, the supply of small-scale irrigation and water conservancy facilities is inadequate, which hinders the agricultural production activities. Farmers are direct users and beneficiaries of small-scale irrigation and water conservancy facilities and their participation can improve the supply level of small-scale irrigation and water conservancy facilities.However, according to the actual research data, the enthusiasm of farmers’ participation in supply is not high, and the actual level of participation in supply is also not high. Social capital which is composed of different structures of social entities is the key to encourage farmers to participate in the supply mechanism of cooperation. Therefore, this paper would study on the behavior of households’ involvement in the supply of small-scale irrigation and water conservancy, and then give the policy recommendations.Through elaborating the multi-dimensional characteristics and selecting specific measurement of indicators of each dimension, this paper builds social capital index measurement system, and then makes a research on the influence mechanism of social capital on farmers’ participation in the supply of the small water conservancy, and provides a new theoretical basis for the reform of farmers’ participation in the cooperation mechanisms of the public goods supply. Firstly, based on the research literature on social capital, this paper subdivides social capital into social network, social trust, social support and social cohesion. And then, with the data of 1275 household in Shaanxi, Henan, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia, this paper weights each dimension of the specific measure index by factor analysis method, and then calculates scores of each dimension, and get integrated social capital index finally. Thirdly, this paper represents social network dimension with "network strength, network size and network investment", represents social trust dimension with "level of trust in the family, acquaintances and strangers", represents social support dimension with “reciprocal situation between farmers”, and represents social cohesion dimension with “the frequency of mutual visits between farmers and neighbors and friends”. Finally, on the basis of involvement decision on group participation and the intensity of participation, this paper empirically analyze the effect of social capital on farmers’ participation in the supply of small-scale irrigation and water conservancy facilities by Heckman sample selection model.Through empirical analysis, the following conclusions were obtained:(1) the social capital has significant positive influence on participation in supply and supply level;(2) network and trust have a significant positive impact on participation in supply, and have a non-significant positive influence on supply level;(3)social support has significant negative influence on participation in supply and supply level;(4)social cohesion has a non-significant positive impact on participation in supply, and has a significant positive influence on supply level.