China has a large population,but arable land resources are relatively scarce.Putting chemical fertilizers is an important measure to increase the output per unit area of land to ensure food security.As an important input factor,chemical fertilizers have obvious contributions to China’s grain output.However,the excessive fertilizer application and irrational use of fertilizers by farmers are common in China.This has led to a series of questions such as increased agricultural production costs,declining quality of agricultural products,and serious agricultural non-point source pollution.Inputs for land conservation,especially organic fertilizers and soil testing and formulated fertilization play an important role in curbing the degradation of land resources brought about by the abuse of chemical fertilizers,and are conducive to enhancing the sustainability of agricultural development under constraints of resources and the environment.The soil testing and fertilizer application technology has been carried out for more than ten years since 2004.Until now,this technology has basically covered all agricultural counties and achieved certain achievements.The amount of fertilizer used in agriculture in China since the 1970s(1974)in 2016 first realize negative growth.However,from the overall situation,there is still a dilemma that the demonstration effect is greater than the promotion effect.How to break the “last mile” bottleneck of soil testing and formulated fertilization is a common concern of all sectors of society.At present,one of the main obstacles in the promotion of soil testing and formula fertilizer is the low degree of acceptance of farmers.With the further development of China’s industrialization,urbanization,and agricultural modernization,the small farmer’s agricultural production status is gradually being replaced by new farm operating entities such as family farms.Different from small-scale farmers,family farms obtain land for scale operation through the methods of leasing,transfer,and exchange,and the duration of their land management rights is determined by the lease.The lease,on the other hand,represents the duration of the family farm to some extent.On the one hand,the scale,specialization,and intensive management of family farms can improve the promotion efficiency of soil testing and formulated fertilization.On the other hand,the short-term development of family farms will increase the short-term benefits of agricultural production and decrease the protection input of land.By the end of 2014,there were 139,000 family farms that had been approved by the industrial and commercial registration authority in China.Under the new circumstances,it is a new challenge for the current technology promotion work to pay attention to whether family farms are willing to adopt soil testing formulation technology.The topic of this paper is based on the above background.The adoption of soil testing and formulated fertilization is taken as the land conservation investment index of family farms,and the farmer household model is constructed based on the farmers’ behavior theory and the enterprise life cycle theory.Combining the results of the relevant literature review,we have proposed a more comprehensive range of factors that may affect the duration of family farms and the protection of farms for family farms.Then,based on the field survey data of Jiangsu Province and Anhui Province,we first constructed the IV-2SLS model to quantitatively study the influencing factors of the land tenancy of family farms,and then used the Heckman two-stage method to explore the impact of the family farm on its land conservation investmentbehavior during its duration.Finally put forward corresponding policy recommendations.The results of this study show that:(1)The age of family farmers,the participation of cooperatives,the area of land transferred,the rent of land transferred,and the regional variables have a significant impact on the term of land leases for family farms;(2)The duration of family farms and the age of households,professional cooperatives,awareness of soil testing formula fertilizers,and the number of fertilizer shops in the village will significantly affect the adoption of soil testing formula fertilizers for family farms;(3)family farm duration,head of household age,area of contracted land,professional cooperatives,and the recognition level of soil testing and formula fertilizer will significantly affect the adoption intensity of soil testing formula fertilizer on family farms.Therefore,the duration of family farms has a positive impact on land conservation investment.This paper proposes the following policy recommendations: The government should further improve the construction of land management rights trading market;accelerate the cultivation of young farmers,and develop and strengthen professional farmers;further strengthen agricultural cooperative service functions,and improve the promotion of cooperatives as the main body;Organize soil testing and formula fertilization training to improve farmers’ correct understanding of soil testing and formula fertilizer. |