Impacts of information about COVID-19 on pig farmers'production willingness and behavior:Evidence from China

This paper examines the impacts of information about COVID-19 on pig farmers'production willingness by using endorsement experiments and follow-up surveys conducted in 2020 and 2021 in China.Our results show that,first,farmers were less willing to scale up production when they received information about COVID-19.The information in 2020 that the second wave of COVID-19 might occur without a vaccine reduced farmers'willingness to scale up by 13.4%,while the information in 2021 that COVID-19 might continue to spread despite the introduction of vaccine reduced farmers'willingness by 4.4%.Second,farmers whose production was affected by COVID-19 were considerably less willing to scale up,given the access to COVID-19 information.Third,farmers'production willingness can predict their actual production behavior.

Characterization of Small-Scale Farmers and Assessment of Their Access to Crop Production Information in Selected Counties of Kenya

Small-scale farming accounts for 78% of total agricultural production in Kenya and contributes to 23.5% of the country’s GDP. Their crop production activities are mostly rainfed subsistence with any surplus being sold to bring in some income. Timely decisions on farm practices such as farm preparation and planting are critical determinants of the seasonal outcomes. In Kenya, most small-scale farmers have no reliable source of information that would help them make timely and accurate decisions. County governments have extension officers who are mandated with giving farmers advisory services to farmers but they are not able to reach most farmers due to facilitation constraints. The mode and format of sharing information is also critical since it’s important to ensure that it’s timely, well-understood and usable. This study sought to assess access to geospatial derived and other crop production information by farmers in four selected counties of Kenya. Specific objectives were to determine the profile of small-scale farmers in terms of age, education and farm size;to determine the type of information that is made available to them by County and Sub-County extension officers including the format and mode of provision;and to determine if the information provided was useful in terms of accuracy, timeliness and adequacy. The results indicated that over 80% of the farmers were over 35 years of age and over 56% were male. Majority had attained primary education (34%) or secondary education (29%) and most farmers in all the counties grew maize (71%). Notably, fellow farmers were a source of information (71%) with the frequency of sharing information being mostly seasonal (37%) and when information was available (43%). Over 66% of interviewed farmers indicating that they faced challenges while using provided information. The results from the study are insightful and helpful in determining effective ways of providing farmers with useful information to ensure maximum benefits.

Cattle Production and Lumpy Skin Disease of Smallholder Farmers in Svay Rieng Province

The cattle production in Romeas Haek district,Svay Rieng province,was developed remarkably,since there were some households raising cattle in large number,more than 20 heads.The grazing method of cattle was tethering and free grassing in the commune grass,since the natural grass and rice straw were the main source of cattle feed,however some of them supplemented their cattle with crop-byproducts,planting grass or concentrated feed.For the majority,BCS(Body Condition Scoring)of the cattle in those areas was 3 accounting for 52%-73.33%,but it was found the thin cattle has low BCS of 2 accounting for 11.11%to 40.00%and also fat cattle has BCS of 4 up to 27.78%.However,the average BCS varied with village which ranged from 2.68 to 3.17,but is not different in term of commune and sex of cattle.Besides facing with shortage of feed,the experience with diseases was also another concern,since 85.71%to 95.83%of the households faced this problem last year.Among the clinical signs found,lumpy skin was 100%,i.e.no one escaped from this problem,thus making them aware of vaccinating their cattle against some diseases such as FMD(Foot and Mouth Disease),HS(Hemorrhagic Septicemia)and LSD(Lumpy Skin Disease),but mostly vaccination was used against FMD.Because the LSD has occurred in these areas since 2020,then the seroprevalence was found in high positive up to 72.62%by Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay(ELISA)test.This positive rate was also varying by villages,ranging from 53.3%to 94.44%.But there was no association between positive cattle with commune,BCS,sex and age of cattle.In conclusion,the cattle production in Romeas Haek district,Svay Rieng province had developed markedly,however the shortage of feed and disease occurrence are the main challenges for farmer cattle producers,especially LSD outbreak last year.However,most of the farmers have been aware of the benefit of vaccination and had vaccinated their cattle against those main disease,such as FMD,HS and LSD.

Pig farmers’ willingness to recover their production under COVID-19 pandemic shock in China-Empirical evidence from a farm survey

Pig farmers’willingness to recover production under the COVID-19 pandemic shock is significant to recover live pigs’supply in China in 2020.Increasing farmers’willingness to recover pig production contributes to enhance pig supply,stabilize the pig and pork market,and to improve pig farmers’income.This research studies the determinants of pig farmers’willingness to recover production under COVID-19 pandemic shock by applying survey data of 201 farmers in Huai’an City and Lin’an City and a logit regression model.The estimation results show that a farmer’s risk perception,the duration time of a farmer’s feed supply under COVID-19 pandemic shock,whether or not being a cooperative member,and a farmer’s knowledge on government’s policy designed to encourage pig production,a farmer’s education level and production experience are the key determinants to a farmer’s willingness to recover pig production.Thus,it’s important for policymakers to solve the problems for farmers to get access to feed during the pandemic,to encourage the development of cooperatives,as well as to issue and advocate policies to encourage pig production.The study contributes to the scant literature by providing fresh empirical evidences on determinants of farmers’willingness to recover pig production.It has significance to farmers and governments to enhance farmers’willingness to recover production,which contributes to secure pig supply in China after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Farmers’precision pesticide technology adoption and its influencing factors:Evidence from apple production areas in China

The research aimed to understand farmers’willingness to adopt(WTA)and willingness to pay(WTP)for precision pesticide technologies and analyzed the determinants of farmers’decision-making.We used a two-stage approach to consider farmers’WTA and WTP for precision pesticide technologies.A survey of 545 apple farmers was administered in Bohai Bay and the Loess Plateau in China.The data were analyzed using the double-hurdle model.The results indicated that 78.72%of respondents were willing to apply precision pesticide technologies provided by service organizations such as cooperatives and dedicated enterprises,and 69.72%were willing to buy the equipment for using precision pesticide technologies.The results of the determinant analysis indicated that farmers’perceived perceptions,farm scale,cooperative membership,access to digital information,and availability of financial services had significant and positive impacts on farmers’WTA precision pesticide technologies.Cooperative membership,technical training,and adherence to environmental regulations increased farmers’WTP for precision pesticide technologies.Moreover,nonlinear relationships between age,agricultural experience,and farmers’WTA and WTP for precision pesticide technology services were found.

Analysis of Factors of Production for Rice Farmers and Research of Development Countermeasures——A Survey of 565 Farm Households in Hunan Province and Zhejiang Province

[Objective] The aim was to analyze economic benefits of rice farmers and influential factors in China. [Method] Based on data of rice production in 565 farm households in 2009, correlation analysis was conducted on characters of households, input/output of rice production, condition and environment of rice production, related policies and activities with SPSS. [Result] Yield per mu, production cost, and rice price were dominant factors influencing economic benefits of rice farmers; labor force in a household, training of rice cultivation, machine rice production and rice cropping had significant effects on benefits from rice production; area of rice, family educa- tion, on-time field management, site instruction, and demonstration fields all had in- significant effects on economic benefits of rice. In addition, suggestions were pro- posed about choice of production scale, implementation of rice policies, measures of subsidy, and purchase price of rice. [Conclusion] The research provides references for rice production and improvement of economic benefits of rice farmers.

Developing sustainable summer maize production for smallholder farmers in the North China Plain: An agronomic diagnosis method

With an increasing population and changing diet structure, summer maize is increasingly becoming an important energy crop in China. However, traditional farmer practices for maize production are inefficient and unsustainable. To ensure food security and sustainable development of summer maize production in China, an improved, more sustainable farmer management system is needed. Establishing this system requires a comprehensive understanding of the limitations of current farming practice and the ways it could be improved. In our study, 235 plots from three villages in the North China Plain(NCP) were monitored. Maize production on farms was evaluated;our results showed that the maize yield and nitrogen partial factor productivity(PFPN) were variable on smallholder farms at 6.6–13.7 t ha^–1 and 15.4–88.7 kg kg^–1, respectively.Traditional farming practices also have a large environmental impact(nitrogen surplus:–64.2–323.78 kg ha^–1). Key yield components were identified by agronomic diagnosis. Grain yield depend heavily on grain numbers per hectare rather than on the 1 000-grain weight. A set of improved management practices(IP) for maize production was designed by employing a boundary line(BL) approach and tested on farms. Results showed that the IP could increase yield by 18.4% and PFPN by 31.1%, compared with traditional farmer practices(FP), and reduce the nitrogen(N) surplus by 57.9 kg ha^–1. However,in terms of IP effect, there was a large heterogeneity among different smallholder farmers’ fields, meaning that, precise technologies were needed in different sites especially for N fertilizer management. Our results are valuable for policymakers and smallholder farmers for meeting the objectives of green development in agricultural production.

Willingness of farmers to participate in food traceability systems:improving the level of food safety

In order to solve frequently emerging food safety problems and adapt to the developing trends in the international food safety field, the Chinese government is establishing and developing food traceability systems. Whether or not food traceability sys- tems can guarantee food safety is a problem well worth discussing. Hence, we constructed a theoretical model to explore the effect of incentives in a food traceability system in order to improve food safety levels. The following results were obtained： enhancing the ef- fectiveness of a food traceability system, increasing the payment to farmers who supply safe agricultural products and strengthening the penalty for unsafe food supply actions are necessary conditions to improve the level of food safety. How to encourage farmers to use food traceability systems is another problem explored in our investigation. Based on a field survey on the willingness of vegetable growers to participate using a vegetable traceability system in Beijing, the first city in China to develop such a system, we used a de- scriptive statistics and a binary logistic regression model to investigate the factors which dominate the decision on the part of farmers to participate in a food safety system. The results indicate that i： younger farmers are more likely to get involved in a food traceability system than older farmers, ii： income from non-agricultural activities decreases the willingness of farmers to participate, iii： the high- er the cost-benefit ratio of growing vegetables, the more likely for farmers to engage in a food traceability system, iv： farmers with a great concern for food safety information have a high propensity to participate and v： increased penalties against unsafe food supply actions and high-risk expectation are adverse incentives. In contrast, high-price expectation is a positive incentive for farmers to par- ticipate, while agricultural training, government subsidies and being part of an industrial organization will significantly strengthen the confidence of farmers to participate in a food safety system.

Determinants of cooperative pig farmers' safe production behaviour in China——Evidences from perspective of cooperatives' services

Farmers＇ production behaviour is a key to ensuring the safety and quality of their final products, and cooperatives play an important role in shaping that behaviour. This paper aims to explore the determinants of pig farmers＇ safe production behaviour, giving special focus from the perspective of cooperatives＇ services. This study adopted cross sectional survey data from 27 pig cooperatives and their 540 farmers in China to test the influence of cooperatives＇ services on farmers＇ safe production behaviour. The hypotheses were tested using a logit regression model. The findings indicated that although the number of services is not a key determinant of farmers＇ safe production behaviour, service quality matters. When a cooperative is strongly capable of involving more farmers in certain services, and provides certain services in more frequency, member farmers behave more safely. The results also show that veterinarian and pig-selling services play an important role in ensuring farmers＇ safe production behaviour. For this study, the quality of cooperatives＇ services is implied to have a positive impact on farmers＇ safe production behaviour. Leaders/managers of cooperatives must try to improve the quality of their services instead of merely attempting to provide a large number of services. For government officials and policy makers, designing policies that encourage cooperatives to improve their service quality is important. This research contributes to the scant literature on how cooperative services could help farmers engage in safer production behaviour, which would improve the safety of pork products in the future.

Influence Factors of Farmers' Willingness to Poverty Alleviation Relocation in South Shaanxi Province

In southern Shaanxi,far from the core areas of politics and economy,the conditions are inconvenient and farmers have been threatened by geology,floods for many years,resulting in a large population of poor people.The relocation of poverty alleviation project in southern Shaanxi is helpful for improving living standards of people in disaster-stricken areas.Based on the field survey,this paper analyzed 274 valid questionnaires and established a Logistic Regression Analysis Model.The result shows that the health status of head of household,road type before relocation,annual loss of disasters,and changes in the family income after relocation have a greater influence on the relocation willingness of farmers,while the educational level of householder,the distance from the original place of residence to the town and market,the condition of household electricity before relocation and other factors have a little influence on the relocation willingness of farmers.

Agricultural production structure,market conditions and farmers’nutritional intake in rural China

Nutrition poverty alleviation is an effective measure to improve the nutritional status of economically disadvantaged individuals,fundamentally improving their health and reducing poverty.Based on the Entitlement Theory and using the China Health and Nutrition Survey(CHNS)data,this paper examines the relationship between farmers’nutritional intake,production structure and regional market conditions.Results show that farmers with diversified production have better nutritional intake than those who specialize.Furthermore,the correlation between regional market conditions and nutritional intake varies between economically disadvantaged and non-economically disadvantaged households.Market conditions significantly influence the carbohydrate and fat intake of economically disadvantaged households and are positively associated with the dietary structure and nutritional intake of non-economically disadvantaged ones.Moreover,income is positively correlated with the nutritional intake of non-economically disadvantaged households but not with economically disadvantaged ones.

Perceptions of Rice Farmers towards Production Constraints: Case Study of Niger State of Nigeria and Hainan of China

Rice yield is still low in Nigeria despite the ecological advantages. Several challenges has been traced it production. The study intend to investigate if other rice producing nations are faced with similar challenges and at what magnitude and more importantly, what can be learn to improve the rice yield in Nigeria. Based on 2013/2014 survey, a total sample of 400 famers were randomly interviewed;164 from Niger State of Nigeria and 236 from Hainan province of China. The study collate the perception of farmers to rice production constraints categorized into biotic, abiotic and socioeconomics. Biplot analysis was employed to examine multivariate pattern of their perceptions towards production constraints. The multivariate technique simultaneously displaying different yield levels and factor constraints in data matrix providing the inter-unit distances, variance and correlations of variables. According to the study, Niger state farmers identified socioeconomic constraint as the major factors to production and attributed it to lack of or insufficient investment while the Hainan farmers majorly identified abiotic constraints. The study also indicated that great potential remain to further improve rice yield in both regions especially in Nigeria given the appropriate investment on essential inputs. This study is of great use to extension officers more so, given the investment in Africa, policy makers take advantage of the bilateral and multilateral relationship to invest ease transfer of agricultural information and technologies between or among partners.

Willingness of Farmers Joining Professional Cooperatives——Based on the Questionnaire Survey of Nanjing

Based on the questionnaire survey of farmers in Nanjing City,the research analyzes the influencing factors of farmers' willingness joining professional cooperatives with Binary Logistic model.Results show that variable factors such as:labors,degrees of education,levels of awareness,development of judgments,have positive relation to the willingness of farmers joining professional cooperatives;gender and financial demands are negative related to willingness of farmers joining professional cooperatives;variable factors,such as ages,degrees of education,numbers of farmers,scale of land,generation experience,specific investment and fluctuations of prices,the estimated parameters of which are not significant.At last,the paper points out that the 2 important ways in accelerating the development of professional cooperatives are:the first is to accelerate the capital accumulation of advanced farmers and strengthen the scaled degrees of agricultural management.The second is to promote the information and techniques accumulation speed of professional farmers to strengthen people's awareness and confidence.

Factors Influencing Farmers' Willingness to Participate in the New Vocational Training

Probit model is applied to analyze some key factors influencing farmers' willingness to participate in the new vocational training for farmers based on 683 questionnaires from 8 districts in Chongqing. The results show that individual and family factors significantly affect farmers' participation will. These factors are age,family scale and years of education. Age is the most important factor,family scale is of secondary importance and years of education are the third one. Meanwhile,years of education positively affect farmers' participation willingness;there is a negative correlation among age,family scale and this willingness. Organizer,rural economic development level and training experience have no significant influence on this willingness.

The Impact of Quality of Labor on Farmers' Agricultural Production Benefits:A Case Study of Anyang City

In recent years,the Central Document No.1 has been all about the issues concerning agriculture,countryside and farmers,and especially the Central Document No.1 in 2013 highlighted the improvement of quality of the rural labor force to develop modern agriculture.The quality of labor is related to the improvement of production efficiency,and farmers' agricultural production benefits are related to the issues concerning agriculture,countryside and farmers,ultimately affecting the development process of modern agriculture.On the theoretical basis of human capital,this article carries out empirical analysis,calculates the farmers' agricultural production benefits,and analyzes the specific impact of quality of labor on farmers' agricultural production benefits.Finally,some recommendations are put forth to increase farmers' income.

Farmers' State of Mind and the Policy Thinking for the Cotton Production in Shandong Province

Affected by the meteorological disasters and market fluctuations,the growing area,yield and quality of cotton in Shandong Province have been reduced to varying degrees in recent years.The majority of farmers are regarded as the main body of agricultural production,whose enthusiasm for growing cotton and confidence in the cotton market play a significant role in stabilizing the growing area and improving the quality of cotton.We randomly select the cotton farmers for in-depth interview,to understand the situation of cotton cultivation and their state of mind for growing,aimed at deriving the factors influencing farmers'willingness to grow cotton.In the future,it is necessary to make the best use of the advantages and bypass the disadvantages,and in a timely manner curb the decline of cotton cultivation in the process of guiding and encouraging the cotton cultivation,in order to solve the problems of low farmers'willingness to grow cotton and sluggish cotton industry from the root.

Study on the Influence of Farmer Social Capital on Cooperative Supply Willingness of Agricultural Disaster Reduction Public Goods——Based on the Investigation on 515 Farmers

Based on social capital theory,related factors of three dimensions( structure dimension,cognition dimension and relation dimension) of farmer social capital are taken as independent variables,and famer's willingness to cooperatively supply agricultural disaster reduction public goods is taken as dependent variable. Taking 515 farmers in 27 villages of Hubei Province as investigation objects,the influence of farmer social capital on cooperative supply willingness of agricultural disaster reduction public goods is explored by Logistic regression model. Research results show that social solidarity,common value concept,social trust and reciprocal content have positive impact on farmer's willingness of cooperative supply,while annual household income,number of agricultural disaster reduction public goods and social network have negative impact on farmer's willingness of cooperative supply.

Factors Influencing Willingness and Ability of Farmers to Adopt New Technologies:A Case Study of Guanzhong Area

Based on data of 248 rural households in Pucheng County and Huxian County,we established the Two-Level Logit Model to analyze the willingness of farmers to adopt new technologies,its influence factors,and probability of successful adoption of new technologies.Results show that the willingness has positive correlation with whether the farmer is head of household,the educational level,occupation,agricultural loan,the number of family labor,and information dissemination channel,while it has negative correlation with non-agricultural employment proportion and whether the farmer is village cadre.In the model of the probability of farmers'successfully adopting new technologies,occupation,agricultural loan,planting area,gender and educational level are positively correlated,while age and non-agricultural employment proportion are negatively correlated.Largescale flow of rural labor plays a negative role in popularization of technologies in rural areas through influencing factors,including number of family labor,non-agricultural employment proportion,educational level,gender,and whether the farmer is village cadre.Finally,on the basis of results of empirical study,we put forward countermeasures and suggestions for strengthening ability of farmers to adopt new technologies.

Sustainable Potato Production in the Mountain Area of Ecuador, an Approach to Increase Productivity with Small Scale Farmers

Ecuador potato crop is family based production system. Potato production has two roles in their economy, the first is providing food for their families and the second is a source of income for the household. However small scale farmers have limited access to local markets and most of the sales are through intermediates’ who purchase directly in the field at the lowest price possible. Potato production challenges for the small-scale farmers are among others availability of quality potato seed, direct sales, purchase of agrochemical inputs to maintain their crops and lack of education. In 2021, only 4% of potato farmers used certified seed. Potato yield is still low around 16.1 t·ha-1, in the last 10 years the total potato cultivated area was reduced by at least 50%. The farmers produce “Bokashi” and other organic fertilizer and these are effective to improve soil fertility and plant health. Homemade bio-pesticides reduce agrochemical pesticides. The Decision Support System (DSS) is a handheld device to control late blight, minimizes fungicide applications and improve fungicide rotation. In 2018 Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum (Lso), the causal agent of zebra chip, and its vector, the potato psyllid Bactericera cockerelli, together created havoc for farmers and researchers. Promotion of early potato varieties INIAP—Libertad is an alternative to lower the impact of this newest pest.

Farmers’ perceptions of pollinators’ importance in coffee production in Uganda

Coffee (Coffea canephora) is the principal cash crop and the country’s largest agricultural foreign revenue earner in Uganda. Previous surveys confirmed that coffee grown in central Uganda was largely depending on bee pollination to set fruit set. Despite its high contribution to the economics of agricultural sector in Uganda and despite its great dependency to bees for fruit set, it is not clear if small-scale farmers are aware of the importance of managing farm-landscapes for pollination services conservation to increase coffee yield. The aim of this study was to assess farmers’ perceptions and knowledge of the importance of pollinators and pollination services conservation for coffee production enhancement. The main hypothesis was that small-scale coffee growers were not aware of the relevance of pollination services for coffee production. Farmers’ surveys were conducted in coffee-banana farming systems in central Uganda. It was found in this study that more than 90% of interviewed farmers were not aware of the role played by bees in coffee yield increase. Farmers were not willing to manage their lands to protect pollination services, particularly because they considered pollination service as an unsolicited “free service”, or as a “public good”. Farmers were not aware of the role of semi- natural habitats serving as reservoir (hiding points) for pollinators in the surrounding of coffee fields. However, they were aware of some ecosystem services delivered in the coffee- banana farming system such as planting shading trees. Only 3.3% of respondents believed that placing beehives in coffee farms could increase the yield. The study recommended the increase of the awareness of small-scale coffee growers on the importance of pollinators to increase coffee production. It is recommended that future management of pollination services are built on improving farmers’ indigenous knowledge and on adequate understanding of the ecology of the local pollinator species. There is a need to broadly scale-up best field, habitat and landscape management strategies and practices that are friendly to coffee pollinators in rural landscapes of