The Influence Of The Perceived Value Of Cultivated Land On Farmers’ Ecological Farming Behavior

With the continual and extensive exploitation of cultivated land in China,the signal of “exhaustion”has long been sent,and the promotion of ecological farming has become an objective requirement for coordinating the balance between food security and cultivated land protection.In order to improve the quality of cultivated land,and increase the adoption rate of ecological farming technology,the governments have formulated a series of relevant policies and programs,but the results are unsatisfactory.farmers’ acceptance of ecological farming technology is linked to the sustainable use of cultivated land resources as the most basic participants.Farmers’ ecological farming activity can be influenced by their subjective cognitive and psychological perceptions,and the perceived value of cultivated land is not only a prerequisite for farmers to protect cultivated land,but also is the intrinsic motivation to stimulate them to engage in ecological farming.It underlines the multi-dimensional extension trend of farmers’ particular perceptions of cultivated land in the new period of the social context,where land-keeping and land-leaving coexist.As a result,study into perceived value of cultivated land is beneficial in exploring the intrinsic variables that farmers consider in order to conserve and increase the quality of cultivated land.Based on the importance of cultivated land quality,this paper focuses on farmers’ ecological farming behavior.Firstly,a theoretical analysis framework is built using theory of Norm-activation,theory of Planned Behavior,and Consciousness-Situation-Behavior model.Secondly,the sample farmers’ individual characteristics and the adoption rate of ecological farming behavior are statistically described.Then,using 1,023 research data from 6 counties(cities)in Hubei Province and Henan Province,the influence of the perceived value of cultivated land on farmers’ ecological farming behavior was then discussed using measurement models such as the Oprobit model and the IV-Oprobit model,which considers the endogenous issues such as mutual causality between observed variables.The paper analyzes the mechanism of action under different situational restrictions,as well as the impact of perceived cultivated land value on farmers’ behavior with different characteristics.The conclusions are as follows:(1)At present,the adoption rate of ecological farming technology is insufficient,and there is a significant gap between the adoption rates of each technology.Specifically,the percentage of farmers using straw returning technology is the highest,followed by the crop rotation technology and the subsoiling technology,and farmers who use minimal tillage have the lowest rate.Although the fact that development on ecological farming technology is progressing normally,the level of adoption by farmers is not optimistic.From the number of farmers adopting technologies,most farmers focus on adopting 2 to 3 items,which shows that the promotion of ecological farming technology has a lot of space for improvement.(2)The perceived value of cultivated land has a significant positive effect on farmers’ ecological farming behavior.From a single ecological farming technology,the perceived value of cultivated land also has an impact on using minimal tillage technology,organic fertilizer application technology,and rotation technology.Overall,the perceived value of cultivated land has a significant positive impact on farmers’ ecological farming behavior.Specifically,when farmers have stronger perceived value,they are more likely to adopt ecological farming behavior.(3)Different situational constraints have a moderating effect between perceived cultivated land value and farmers’ ecological farming behavior.When farmers face pressure from government supervision and environmental pressure,the positive effect of perceived cultivated land value on farmers’ ecological farming behavior has increased,but the impact of perceived cultivated land value on farmers’ ecological farming behavior was weakened under social pressure,and it does not affect the relationship under policy constraints.(4)The effect of perceived value of farmland on farmers’ ecological farming behavior differed among different types of characteristics.Specifically,in the old-generation farmer group,the effect of the perceived value of cultivated land on their ecological farming behavior is not obvious,while in the new generation,the effect is positive.In addition,when farmers with a larger scale of cultivated land or higher material values,the impact of the perceived value of cultivated land on their ecological farming behavior is more obvious.Based on the research conclusions,this paper believes that an interactive mechanism of government guidance,farmers’ leadership,and village collective supervision can promote the protection and improvement of cultivated land quality effectively.The policy implications are as follows:(1)Strengthen government guidance and create a good incentive environment;(2)Encourage farmers to participate actively and increase their adoption rate of ecological farming;(3)Pay attention to collective supervision,it can promote ecological farmland improvement.