Effect Of Grassland Ecological Protection Subsidy And Reward Policy On Herdsmen's Production Decision Behavior In Gansu

Grassland is not only an important green barrier,but also plays an important strategic role in social and economic development.In order to protect the grassland ecological environment and ensure the livelihood of pastoralists,China officially launched the grassland ecological protection subsidy and reward policy(GEPSRP)in 2011.Gansu Province is a treasure trove of grassland resources in China,with a variety of grassland types.The study on the response of the GEPSRP in Gansu Province has certain enlightenment significance for different grassland types and even for the whole country.Through 7 years' development,does the advancement of the grassland awarding policy have an impact on the decision behavior of herdsmen's livestock production? What effect has it produced? And what other factors have affected the pastoral production decision-making behavior of the herdsmen? At present,the evaluation of this aspect lacks comparative analysis between pastoral areas and semipastoral areas,while the evaluation of Gansu Province has not been found.To this end,this paper based on stratified random sampling of the data of 220 households in 7 counties that were collected through a stratified random sampling in pastoral areas and semi-pastoral areas of Gansu Province.Through constructing the econometric model and using the combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis methods,this paper empirically analyzed the impact of GEPSRP on livestock production and herdsmen's livestock production decision behavior in Gansu Province.Hoped it could improve the GEPSRP,optimize the decision behavior of herdsmen's production,and promote the modernization of animal husbandry in pastoral areas and semi-pastoral areas.The main conclusions were as follows:(1)The GEPSRP had an obvious impact on the production of animal husbandry in Gansu Province.The production mode of animal husbandry has changed(the pastoral area was changed from grazing to semi-grazing and semi-captivity,and the semipastoral area was changed from grazing to captivity).The speed of livestock turnover has been accelerated,the output of livestock products,the average supplementary feeding of livestock and inventory quantity of livestock increased to varying degrees.Among them,in the semi-pastoral areas,the increase of slaughter rate of livestock per household(15.84%)was more obvious,while in pastoral areas,the increase of inventory quantity of livestock(8.99%)was more obvious.(2)Under other conditions were unchanged,the effects of the GEPSRP on herdsmen's livestock production decision behavior in semi-pastoral areas were higher than that in pastoral areas.There were differences in the impact of forbidden grazing and the grassland-livestock balance on the herdsmen's livestock production decision behavior.The higher proportion of subsidy funds,the greater possibility that herdsmen in pastoral areas and semi-pastoral areas would expand the scale of livestock production,with marginal effects of 0.3745 and 0.4582 respectively.Further,when the herdsmen expand the scale of livestock production in the later period,the regression coefficient of the proportion of subsidy funds to the pastoral areas and semi-pastoral areas were 0.6196 and 3.0210 respectively.The forbidden grazing policy was negatively correlated with the possibility of expanding the scale of livestock production in two areas,and was presented an inverted U-shaped relationship with the scale of livestock production enlarged by herdsmen in pastoral areas,and positively correlated with the scale of livestock production enlarged by herdsmen in semi-pastoral areas.The grasslandlivestock balance policy was positively correlated with the decision behavior of herdsmen in two areas.(3)In addition to the GEPSRP,the factors affecting the herdsmen's production decision behavior were asymmetric.Judging from the possibility of herdsmen expanding the scale of livestock production,the pastoral area was mainly affected by family characteristics(household income,forbidden grazing area and breeding scale),while the semi-pastoral area was mainly affected by external environmental factors(mutton price and the distance from the county).At the same time,livestock insurance had a significant impact on the possibility of herdsmen expanding the scale of livestock production in two areas,with marginal effects of 0.2367 and 0.5030,respectively.Judging from the expanded scale of herdsmen's livestock production in the later period,the herdsmen in pastoral areas payed more attention to the capital,the risk protection of livestock and forage reserves(household income,livestock insurance and artificial forage grassland area),while herdsmen in semi-pastoral areas focused on income source,market and forage reserves(non-grazing income ratio,mutton price and artificial forage grassland area).Based on the above conclusions,the following suggestions were proposed in this study: The improvement of the GEPSRP in Gansu Province should attach importance to the desert steppe,comprehensive herdsmen's household characteristics,and implement differentiated subsidies;to meet the needs of herdsmen,raise the decisionmaking level of herdsmen,and realize the maximize benefits of animal husbandry;strengthen the construction of supporting measures for animal husbandry,promote the reform of the supply side of animal husbandry of the pastoral areas and semi-pastoral areas,and further the transformation and upgrading of animal husbandry.