Study On Extension Performance Of Grain Crop Leading Variety From Farmers' Angle

Food safety is the foundation of economic development and social stability. It has important influence on the development of the whole country. Our government has been attaching great importance to food safety issues and made a strategic policy that we should depend on domestic food production to solve the problem. Great achievements have been obtained for many prompting measures. The total grain production reached nearly 5500 billion kilograms in 2010, it is the first seven consecutive growth in the past half century. However, in the long run, China'food safety issues are serious because of many constraints, such as population growth, land loss and water shortage. Relying on agricultural science and technology innovation is the only practical way to ensure our national food safety.One seed can change the world. Crop seed is the basic factor in agricultural production and it is essential for grain yield. The research and extension of good varieties is the key factor for national food safety protection. Enthusiasm of R&D institutes and seed companies were stimulated to a great extent since the Regulations on the Protection of New Varieties of Plants and the Law of the Seed were carried out. The number of new plant varieties increased a lot from 1999 to 2010,6632 varieties had been applied and 2984 were approved. But most seed companies in our country are small and weak, so that new varieties market is chaotic now. Farmers have difficulty to select suitable varieties. In order to guide the farmers to select variety, our state enacted Ordinance of the Extension of Leading Varieties and Technology in 2004. Localities were asked to introduce leading variety and technology to farmer through radio, television, newspapers, wall charts, CD-ROMs and on-site observation, etc. What is the status of extension of leading varieties? What are those factors influencing for farmers'variety-choosing behavior? Have the leading varieties significant effect on the grain yield? Are farmers satisfied with the extension system? The answers of these questions are not only the evaluation of extension performance, but also the needs of further promoting reform of agricultural extension system.Wheat is one of the most important grain crops, its area and output have reached one-fifth of national total amount. Therefore, this paper evaluates the leading varieties extension performance depending on the extension of wheat. This paper designs the study outline after some theories have been put forward, such as innovation diffusion theory, household behavior theory and performance evaluation theory. Using economic model and investigation data of 581 households in Anhui province, the study analyzes the influencing factors of farmers'variety-choosing behavior, effect of increasing yield, farmers'satisfaction level. At last, some countermeasures have been put forward to improve performance of agricultural technology extension. The full text consists 9 chapters and the main studying contents and conclusions will be illustrated as follows:Part one:The statistical analysis of farmers'demand of wheat varietyThe analysis of sample indicates that most of farmers have strong requirement for wheat production technology. Many farmers want to receive technology guidance, especially pure farmers and large-scale farmers. Farmers have much more enthusiasm on the technologys that affect output indirectly, such as new variety, new fertilizer and new pesticide. But they have not much interest in those technologys that benefit development of sustainable agriculture, such as wheat straw using. Some variety characteristics have been paid more attention by Farmer, such as higher-yield, disease-resistant, quality, price, prevention and cure of insect pest or grass harm. Most farmers receive wheat variety information from relatives, friends and retailers. They prefer to new wheat variety and the main way for farmers to get seed is purchase. The role of agro-technician in information dissemination is not remarkable. A lot of people reduce the wheat production risk by using more than one variety.Part two:influence factors analysis for farmers'choosing behavior of wheat leading varietyThe analysis of sample indicates that the result of variety extension by government is not very good. Only about 60%of farmers use those varieties introduced by government. Using logistic model, results of empirical analysis showed that the some factors, such as household leader'gender, education, cognitive level, attitude and contact times with agro-technician, have positive inflouence on farmers'choice of wheat variety. Good seed subsidy and collective purchase are two effective way to guide farmers to choose leading variety of wheat. Part three:farmers'satisfaction evaluation on the extension of leading wheat varietyBased on the farmers'survey data, this paper calculates the farmers'satisfaction of the variety extension system. Using factor analysis method, the paper determines the role and status of every factor according to importance and satisfaction. Study showes that the evaluation of farmers'satisfaction is not high. Comprehensive score is only 55.38. The farmers'evaluation of publicity, yield, subsidy amount and way are high. Evaluation of agro-technician'capacity and attitude is low. The research also indicates that we must improve the quality of wheat variety, raise agro-technician'knowledge level and change their working attitude.Part four: empirical analysis on influence factors for farmers'choice behavior of the wheat yield per muUsing C-D production function, this paper analyses the influence factors of wheat yield from input factors and technologys. The result shows that leading varieties of wheat can improve yield significantly. Input factors including fertilizers, pesticides and found have a positive impact on wheat yield per mu. What's more, there is scale effect in wheat production. Fertilization and pest control are two technologies affecting wheat yield per mu.Based on above research, this paper comes up with the follow countermeasures:At first, we must accelerate the reform of agricultural extension system, perfect the incentive mechanism of agricultural technicians; Second, it is necessary to strengthen the farmers'training, to improve their production technology, to develop farm cooperative organizations; Third, the policy of good seed subsidy should be further perfected; At last, government should encourage variety technological innovation; improve quality of seeds, speed up rural land circulation to develop appropriate scale production.