Study On The Farmers’ Cognition And Conservation Of Agricultural Heritage Systems

To deal with the global trends that agriculture had the crisis of sustainable development and traditional agricultural systems gradually were destroyed,the Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO)of the United Nations began to protect “Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems(GIAHS)”and also proposed the concept and connotation of agricultural heritage systems(AHS)in 2002.China is one of the first countries to respond it and also participate in it actively.Especially China began to identify and safeguard “China Important Nationally Agricultural Heritage Systems(China-NIAHS)”since 2012.In 2014,Anxi Tieguanyin Tea Culture System(ATCS)in Fujian province became one of China-NIAHS.AHS is a living heritage that the whole agricultural heritage systems have to contain farmers’ participation and farmers are the main actor of AHS conservation.However,at present,many studies and practices showed that the problem of low level of farmers’ cognition and participation still existed during the conservation and development of AHS.In addition,it has become a common dilemma that inadequacy of farmers’ participation in AHS conservation which caused by low level of farmers’ cognition to AHS conservation and hence makes the sustainable development of AHS meet challenges.For ATCS,although farmers are its main actor and direct participant,farmers’ participation in conservation is restricted mainly because the overall cognition of farmers’ needs to improve and the targeted of conservation policies is not enough.Therefore,Taking ATCS as an example,it is essential to study on the farmers’ cognition and conservation of AHS and discuss the impact of farmers’ cognition on their participation behavior and willingness in the conservation of AHS.And this study is able to provide theory basis for AHS sites government to establish conservation policies and also being reference for other AHS sites to enhance farmers’ participation in conservation from the perspective of cognition.The theory basis mainly has theory of multi-functionality of agriculture,theory of place identity and theory of planned behavior.Research contents are in the following:(1)Our study analyzed the cognitive situation of farmers to ATCS from historical,practical,emotional,cultural,valuable and behavioral cognition and discussed the relation of them.(2)On the basis of investigation on the cognitive degree of farmers to ATCS conservation,our study analyzed the cognitive situation of farmers’ to ATCS conservation from three dimension,including attitude toward the behavior(ATT),subjective norm(SN)and perceived behavioral control(PBC).(3)Our study analyzed the current situation of farmers’ willingness and behavior to participate in ATCS conservation through Likert5-grade scale.(4)Our study analyzed the impact of farmers’ cognition on their participation willingness and behavior in ATCS conservation by using Structural Equation Modeling(SEM)in order to reveal the influence path and mechanism of them.The main conclusion is in the following:(1)The cognitive degree of farmers to ATCS is high,especially on cultural,valuable and behavioral cognition.The attitude between cognition and conservation has mutual promotion.(2)There are three results of analysis about the cognitive situation of farmers’ to ATCS conservation.Firstly,the consciousness of farmers to ATCS conservation is strong but the understanding of ATCS conservation knowledge is not enough.Secondly,farmers mainly aware that government is asking for ATCS conservation actively and their participation in ATCS conservation is less influenced by surrounding farmer.Thirdly,farmers’ evaluation on their ability to participate in ATCS conservation is high.(3)For willingness,farmers’ willingness to participate in ATCS conservation is high but farmers’ willingness to continue planting tea for their future generations is low which is related to high labor intensity of traditional planting tea.For behavior,farmers’ initiative of participating in tea garden ecological planting,Tieguanyin manufacture skills inheritance,tea germplasm resources conservation and tea cultural activities is high and their levels have little difference.(4)The ATT of farmers to ATCS conservation positively impact on their willingness to participate in ATCS conservation but not significant.But the SN and PBC of farmers to ATCS conservation have a positive significant influence on their willingness to participate in ATCS conservation and indirectly positively impact on farmers’ behavior to participate in ATCS conservation through the intermediary role of their willingness to participate in ATCS conservation.To be specific,the main cognitive factors affecting whether farmers are willing to participate in ATCS conservation have cognition on the mastery of professional knowledge and basic skills,the affordability of time cost,the result of participation and the initiative of village committee and county government.On the basis of above research conclusion,policy recommendations are put forward in the following:(1)The publicity of ATCS conservation should be strengthened to comprehensively enhance the cognitive level of farmers for ATCS conservation.(2)The government at various levels should establish the institution of ATCS conservation to construct a good institutional environment in order to increase the initiative of the government of carrying out ATCS conservation.(3)It is necessary to improve and implement the incentive policies for farmers to enhance their abilities to participate in ATCS conservation.