The influence of asset specificity on farmers’ willingness to participate in fallow from the perspective of farmer differentiation

Fallow is an important institutional guarantee for green agricultural development and an important measure to promote rural revitalization. Asset specificity is a crucial factor that affects farmers’ willingness to participate in fallow. In order to improve farmers’ willingness of to fallow and promote the long-term promotion of fallow system, based on the perspective of farmer differentiation, a total of 1,240 micro survey data in four cities of Gansu province was used to quantify the asset specificity by the entropy method. A multivariate ordered Logit model and a double-hurdle model were established to explore the effects of asset specificity on the willingness of farmers with different degrees of differentiation. The results show that: 1) There are differences in fallow willingness among different types of farmers. The fallow willingness of non-farmers and II part-time farmers is generally stronger than that of pure farmers and I part-time farmers. 2) Geographical location specificity has a significant negative impact on the fallow willingness of the four types of non-fallow farmers, and has significant negative impacts on the subsequent fallow willingness and fallow degree of the four types of fallow farmers. 3) Physical asset specificity has a significant negative effect on the fallow willingness of pure farmers, I part-time and II part-time farmers among non-fallow farmers, but has little effect on the subsequent fallow willingness of fallow farmers. 4) Human capital specificity has a significant negative impact on the fallow willingness of the four types of non-fallow farmers, and has a significant negative impact on the subsequent fallow willingness and fallow degree of the four types of fallow farmers.