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Protecting and improving cultivated land quality is a key way to the realization of agricultural modernization. The Chinese government advocates agricultural producers to implement cultivated land protection and quality improvement behavior (CLPQIB). However, the cultivated land management rights of family farms are not so stable. In order to study how stability of land management rights (SLMR) affects family farms’ CLQPIB, promoting family farms in adopting technologies to protect cultivated land, this study investigated 117 family farms in Anhui and Hubei provinces by stratified sampling and analyzed data through the logistic regression model and marginal effects model. The results showed that transferred land ratio, contract types, and contract duration affected family farms’ CLPQIB significantly. The probability of family farms applying organic fertilizer decreased by 0.9% for every 1% increase of the transferred land ratio. Family farms’ rented land through formal contracts have a 21.4% higher probability of adopting planting–breeding technology than family farms’ rented land through informal contracts. For every additional year of the rental contract duration, the possibility for family farms to replace chemical fertilizer with organic fertilizer, pesticides reduction, and integrated planting-breeding increase by 2.1%, 2.2%, and 1.3%, respectively. The results of this study can guide policy makers with further regulating land transfer behavior, guide family farms with signing formal lease contracts, and extending the duration of lease contracts, improving the cultivated land protection behavior of family farms.

In China, returning wheat straw to the field (RWSF) is the most popular way of utilizing wheat straw. RWSF can not only improve soil quality, but also help to control agricultural pollution from wheat straw burning. However, the increased production cost caused by RWSF reduces farmers' enthusiasm to adopt this approach. This study estimated farmers' willingness to accept compensation (WTA) for RWSF by using the contingent valuation method (CVM), and identified determinants that influence farmers' WTA by using an ordered choice model (OCM). It aimed to determine how much compensation should be given to farmers for encouraging them to adopt RWSF and which factors affect their WTA. The results showed that, currently, the increased cost caused by adopting RWSF was 743 RMB/ha, and which was fully burdened by farmers. Although more than 90% of the surveyed farmers adopted RWSF, only 3.8% of these farmers were willing to adopt RWSF voluntarily without any compensation. The farmers' WTA of adopting RWSF was 479 RMB/ha, and it was much higher than the current subsidy rate of 300 RMB/ha in Jiangsu, which could not effectively encourage farmers to adopt RWSF voluntarily. Farmers' WTA is not only positively affected by the increasing production cost caused by RWSF and negatively influenced by the benefits resulting from RWSF, but also restricted by social-economic characteristics such as age, education, income etc. It is costly for the Chinese government to subsidize all the farmers adopting RWSF, letting farmers to become aware of the long-term environmental value of RWSF is an effective measure to motivate them to protect environment responsibly by adopting RWSF. These findings are useful in improving the current provincial subsidy policies or designing new subsidy policies nationwide for RWSF, and helpful in encouraging famers more sustainably adopting RWSF and promoting cleaner wheat production.

Corn stalk return (CSR) can manage agricultural residues on the spot to avoid field open burning and protect the environment. However, the implementation of this measure encounters reluctance from farmers which hinders its sustainability. This study combined the economic (cost) and technical (return amount, crushing quality, and decomposition of corn stalk) aspects to examine the factors affecting farmers' willingness to participate in the CSR by using a logistic regression model. The level of willingness to accept (WTA) compensation and its determinants were analyzed by using a tobit model. Based on the survey of 925 farmers, this study found the likelihood of farmers' participation in CSR will be decreased when CSR has high machinery cost, an excessive amount of stalk, poor quality of crushing, and slow decomposing rate. The farmers' WTA for CSR was estimated at about 711 Chinese Yuan (RMB) per ha annually, much higher than the current compensation level of 75-225 RMB per ha in Henan. Farmers were willing to be compensated more because of the high cost and slow decomposing rate. The issues in economic and technical sides should attract more attention, and the compensation should be increased and the technical problems should be solved to stimulate farmers' willingness of CSR. By providing a fuller understanding of farmers' CSR behavior, this study can serve as a reference for the Chinese government to develop and implement better policies.

This study investigated smallholder farmers' adoption preferences for cropping patterns of cover crops, duration of adoption, and supplementing technical support to reduce agrochemicals regarding sustainable farm management (SFM). A discrete choice experiment was conducted in the Hexi Corridor (D1) and the west Loess Plateau (D2) in northwest China. The results show that farmers in D1 preferred intercropping and rotating cover crops to the current single cropping system, while farmers in D2 prioritized intercropping over rotation and least preferred planting cover crops in marginal land in the double-cropping system. Farmers in both sites preferred 1 or 3 years of adoption over 5 years. Additionally, farmers in D2 preferred technical assistance to reduce the high proportion of agrochemicals. The results indicate that younger farmers with higher annual household incomes were most likely to opt out in D1. In D2, more agricultural labor inputs and raising livestock had positive effects on the adoption of the package. Moreover, farmers who cultivated cash crops were more reluctant to move away from the current cropping system. This study highlights the uses of cover crop intercropping and rotation combining with technical assistance in different agriculturally intensive cropping systems that may be useful in guiding site-specific policy.

Rice production holds a significant position in the Thai economy. Although it is the world's largest rice exporter, Thailand&rsquo, s increase in rice production is the result of an expansion in the cultivation area rather than an increase in yield per unit area. The present study was designed to estimate the technical efficiency and its governing factors for certified organic rice-growing farms in Yasothon Province, Thailand. A data envelopment model was employed to assess the technical efficiency of 328 farmer groups. The data revealed that the average technical efficiency was 23% and 28% under constant returns to scale (CRS) and variable returns to scale (VRS) specifications, respectively. Farmers can reduce the use of machinery, fertilizer, seed, and labor as input factors by about 80.1%, 25.62%, 24.72%, and 19.15%, respectively, while still achieving the same level of output. Multiple regression analysis was applied to estimate factors that affect the pure technical efficiency score (PTES) in the test regions. Results show that household size, farm size, water source, market accessibility, health symptoms, income, and labor were highly related to the TES and the amount of organic rice production. The regression coefficients of the predictors show that the income was the best predictor of the PTES at a significance level of p &lt, 0.05. It is concluded that the farmers can potentially increase their yields by up to 72%&ndash, 77% under current management practices.

For the sake of reducing the application of chemical fertilizers (CF) and achieve the goal of Zero Growth of CF until 2020, Chinese government released the “Action Plan for Organic-Substitute-Chemical-Fertilizer (OSCF) for Fruits, Vegetables and Tea” and initially performed it in 100 pilot counties from 2017. Each pilot county rewarded 10 million CNY as subsidy to substitute CF with organic fertilizers (OF). This study examines the effects of the OSCF policy using survey data of 281 greenhouse vegetable farmers in the Shandong province of China. The Difference-in-Difference (DID) method is employed to get the net effects of the policy on the utilization of replacing CF. The results show that the OSCF policy helps to significantly reduce the application of CF and increase OF’s utilization for vegetable farmers, and on average CF drops 111.5 kg/ha while OF increases 346.36 kg/ha for the sampling farmers. Additional analysis reveals that the effects of the policy are heterogeneous across the cost of CF and household-level characteristics. The results provide evidences for further enhancing the policy effects.

Northeast China (NEC) is the corn granary of China, with average 38% of corn sowing area, 41% of corn production and over 80% corn commodity rate, which makes a great contribution to China's food security. Straw return is the primary way for disposal after harvesting. However, it is controversial in the effect of corn straw return on corn yield, the optimal amount of corn straw return is still unclear. Furthermore, NEC farmers are unwilling to adopt, so these issues require comprehensive regional evaluation. To begin with, this paper studied effects of corn straw return on corn yield increase with meta-analysis. The results illustrated that corn straw return has positive effect on corn yield increase. Secondly, in order to find optimal proportions, n-fold cross-validation method was implemented, and an inventory of corn straw return on corn yield in NEC was compiled. The optimal scheme of corn straw return is 48% of corn straw could bring 5.83% corn yield increase. Finally, results from system dynamics with Monte Carlo (MC) simulation revealed that such production increase potential (around 6.1 million tons of corn) was being blocked by the unaffordable cost for farmers under ordinary scenario. Interestingly, this paper contrived an extreme scenario that corn straw return could be profitable. The flexible adjustment of subsidy could become the motivation for measurement adaptation. This paper concludes that, corn straw return is a sustainable safeguard that can promote corn production in NEC, thus to China's food security in the long run.

The Green Manure Planting Program (GMP), which is a typical case of payment for farmland ecosystem services, has come into play on conserving paddy fields in China. This paper analyses farmers’ willingness to accept (WTA) for adopting GMP by employing the contingent valuation method (CVM) and Double-hurdle (D-H) model on the basis of a sample data set containing information on 1217 farmers in five provinces in southern paddy fields region (SPF) of China. The results show that farmers’ WTA for adopting GMP was 3323 CNY/ha per year, which is much higher than the current compensation standards (com-standards) in the study region. This result explains why the current policy does invalidly stimulate farmers for adopting GMP. Farmers’ WTA is not only influenced by the cost-benefit effect of GMP adoption, but also impacted by their perceived environmental value in improving the quality of paddy fields as well as the demographic and socioeconomic information such as farmers’ age, political identities, income and paddy field area. It is costly if the government compensates all farmers who adopt GMP, letting farmers aware of more environmental value of GMP and maximally promoting the transformation of these environmental values into economic benefits is an effective measure to encourage them to adopt GMP.The results of this study can guide policy makers in determining the budget for GMP compensation and designing systematic compensation mechanism hence improve the sustainability of paddy fields conservation.