Analysis on the Impact of Cattle Fattening Technology on Farmer Households in Atabae Timor-Leste

Agriculture is one of the priority sectors in Timor-Leste. Introducing new agriculture technology is crucial to enhance agricultural production. Practicing cattle fattening can increase beef cattle body weight and generate income to the beef cattle farmers. As farmers face problems including agricultural production decline, lack of forages and information and weather unfavourable. The study’s purpose was to examine the impact of adoption of cattle fattening technology on farmer households in Atabae administrative post, Bobonaro municipality in Timor-Leste. There were 200 beef cattle farmers households where randomly selected in four villages in Atabae. It consisted of 65 farmers practicing cattle fattening and 135 farmers non-practicing cattle fattening. Face to face interviews used structured questionnaire. Statistical analysis such as t-test and descriptive analysis were used to examine impact adoption of cattle fattening technology by farmers and factor constraints of cattle production and the solutions of it. The results indicated the average value of cattle and profit were significant different from zero and it is associated with practicing of cattle fattening. The average of labour used on cattle activities, the average of cattle sold, and total cost spent on cattle were not significant different from zero. The percentage of farmers said that factors constraints cattle production were shortage of water and forage (53%) and spend time on culture ceremony and lack of capital (33%). The number of farmers said that they collected water from river, feed cattle with sago and forage (55.3%) and cultivated forage (23.4%). This finding contributes information to the farmers, traders, and Timorese government to continue implementing cattle fattening activities as it enhances farmers’ income and developing cattle production.

Willingness of Rural Households in Mountainous Areas towards Land Transfer——A Case of Beiliang Village, Wuxiang County, Shanxi Province

In this paper, the Beiliang Village, Wuxiang County of Shanxi Province is chosen as the study object. The methods investigation and interview are applied. And then the status quo of land transfer is analyzed from the aspects of private land transfer, the form of land transference, the land transfer fee, the contracts of the land transfer and farmers' knowledge on land transfer law and so on. Through the investigation and research on peasant households' willingness towards land transfer and the factors that affect the land transfer, the willingness of farmers' land transfer in recent years are transferred. Farmers' land transfer willingness in recent years is clear. On the strength of the analysis, the scientific basis for the reasonable transfer of land in mountainous areas is put forward for optimizing the land distribution and promoting the sustainable and healthy development of rural economy. The countermeasures aim at accelerating land transfer, increasing farmers' income; stringing the development of rural education, increasing the support on three agricultural problems concerning agriculture, countryside and farmers, and standardizing the rural land transfer behaviors are put forwarded as well.

Using Double-Bounded Dichotomous-Choice to Estimate Households’ Willingness to Pay for Improved Water Quality in Bac Ninh Province of Vietnam

This study used double-bounded dichotomous-choice to estimate and analyze the factors affecting households’ willingness to pay (WTP) for water quality improvement. This study notes that households with higher income, living near a polluted water source, using tap water instead of natural water, who are handicraft producers, and who have more members, are willing to pay more. However, households who rarely hear about environmental pollution issues and who are offered a higher bid are more likely to refuse to pay. Solutions to improve water quality are suggested such as to raise people’s awareness through communication channels and social organizations;to increase income associated with environmental protection policies;to construct wastewater treatment plants;to encourage the relocation of production establishments to industrial parks and industrial complexes;to put regulations on collection, payment and sanctions in case of not declaring and paying fees into village conventions;to promulgate circulars, and bylaws to concretize and simplify regulations and policies of the Government and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

Estimating Urban Households’ Willingness-to-Pay for Upland Forest Restoration in Vietnam

Increased urbanization coupled with increased reliance of urban communities on rural areas for ecosystem service provision is a challenge faced by many nations. The ability of urban households to directly support restoration efforts in surrounding rural regions represents an underappreciated funding stream for ecological restoration. This study explored the willingness of urban households to support forest restoration in Vietnam. We surveyed 211 households (HHs) in the capital city Hanoi, Vietnam. A Maximum Likelihood Estimator (MLE) model allowed us to obtain the parameters of our model and quantify mean Willingness-to-Pay (WTP) for a program of forest restoration in addition to identifying factors influencing the decision of WTP. Generally, over forty percent of the households surveyed are willing to pay for forest restoration and the mean value of WTP is 37,830 VND ($1.73) per household per month. WTP depends on endogenous and exogenous factors including level of education, income, female-to-male ratio in the household, attitude toward payment for monthly electricity consumption, and awareness of payment for environmental service. Our results suggest that urban household’s demand for forest restoration is real, and represents an untapped source of restoration funding. Policy-makers should take actions to apply charges on water bills to turn this potential into reality for restoration projects in Vietnam if the benefits from restoration outweigh the costs based on our findings.

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.

An Evaluation of the Introduction of Modified Cropping Practices in Yunnan Province,China,Using Surveys of Farmers’ Households

Problems associated with land degradation are serious in China. Sloping land in South China has experienced a decline in crop productivity by 30-60% due to soil erosion and it has been predicted that most topsoil will be lost within the next 100 years if current erosion rates continue. Considering these situations, an agro-environmental research and development project （Sustainable Highland Agriculture in South-East Asia- SHASEA） was conducted in a catchment in Yunnan Province, China, to address the objectives of increasing crop productivity in sustainable and environmentally-friendly ways. A range of cropping practices was developed and implemented in a rural upland catchment （Wang Jia）. At the end of the project, farmers were surveyed to evaluate project effectiveness. All farmers from Wang Jia Catchment, who were involved in project implementation, were surveyed. A sample of farmers working in an adjacent catchment （not associated with the project） was surveyed for comparative purposes. Farmers had different perceptions of the cropping practices employed. Contour cultivation was preferred and likely to be adopted. Others practices such as straw mulching and intercropping were seen as less appropriate and unlikely to be adopted. Polythene mulch was recognized as effective, but likely to be adopted only if financial returns were favourable. The availability of relevant information had an important impact on the extent of technology testing by farmers and their willingness to adopt the practices 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.

Empirical research on impacted factor of farmer＇s willingness for purchasing information Based on the survey data of Hebei province

Farmer＇s willingness for purchasing information, an important factor of farmer＇s information demand, was analyzed by logit model, according to the survey data of 535 farmers from eleven cities in Hebei province. The result showed that 6 factors had a significant influence on it, that is, education of farmers, per capita income of farmers, the affordability of information risk, the proportion of agricultural labor households, the type of agricultural production and the rural information service stations. On the basis of these, the related policy recommendations were proposed.

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.

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.

Investigation on Farmers'Willingness to Participate in Rural Non-point Source Pollution Control in Nantong and Analysis of Its Influencing Factors

Based on the questionnaire survey of 337 farmers in 8 villages in Rugao City,Jiangsu Province,the gender,age and educational level of the main able-bodied people of farm households,the characteristics of farmers’production and living behaviors,farmers’cognition of rural non-point source pollution,and farmers’willingness to pay for rural non-point source pollution control and its influencing factors were studied.The results show that to protect the rural ecological environment,most farmers are willing to participate in rural non-point source pollution control,but the annual cost of rural non-point source pollution control is low,and the number of volunteer days is small.Rural grass-roots party organizations should stimulate farmers’willingness to participate in rural non-point source pollution control,give full play to the role of the branch as a fighting fortress,and build a mechanism for Party building to lead rural non-point source pollution control.

Research on Factors Influencing Fertilizer Application of Farmer Households in Anhui Province

Known as the " food of grain",chemical fertilizer plays a very important role in increasing the output of agricultural products. In the meantime,its negative externalities such as soil and water environment pollutions as well as the quality and safety hazards caused to agricultural products have been revealed gradually. Taking 126 farmer households in 5 counties( districts) of Anhui Province as samples,the fertilizer application behaviors of farmer households are analyzed. Research shows that farmers applying fertilizer are generally older in age with relatively lower degree of education,inveterate farming habits and small area of cultivation. Besides,the farmer households wish to receive training and guidance on techniques of fertilization,but very few of them have attended the trainings on agricultural technology. Moreover,the individual characteristics and family factors of farmer households have a significant impact on their fertilizer application behaviors. And the degrees of impact are also different for the fertilizer applying behaviors in different stages. Therefore,improving the educational level of farmer households,strengthening the training and promotion of agricultural techniques and accelerating land transfer among farmer households will play a fundamental role in regularizing the fertilizer application behaviors of farmer households and improving the quality and safety of agricultural products.

Vegetable production under COVID-19 pandemic in China: An analysis based on the data of 526 households

The COVID-19 pandemic had an enormous impact on the vegetable supply chain in China.Effective evaluation of the pandemic’s influences on vegetable production is vital for policy settings to enhance the security of vegetable supply.Based on first-hand data from 526 households,we explored regional differences in different types of loss and potential factors affecting the severity farmer households suffered during the pandemic.The results underline that sales contraction and price volatility in the context of interruption of supply chain dominate the total losses during the pandemic.Such losses differ across provinces and are more substantial in provinces with stricter confinement measures.Farmer households’participation in local market and modern marketing methods helps mitigate the negative effects of the COVID-19 shock,while labor hiring and facilities adoption in production widen the losses due to the shortage in the workforce.In the future,the vegetable industry practitioners and relevant government departments should work together to coordinate the development of short and long supply chains and strengthen the stability and security of the vegetable supply chain.

Factors influencing farmer willingness to plant forage triticale in winter fallow fields in Northern China:An example from central Shanxi Province

Background:Using winter fallow fields for plant forage is important to ensure food security.Forage triticale(×Triticosecale)has higher yields than other available forage crops and can be planted widely in winter fallow fields.Recently,the planted area of forage triticale in Shanxi Province,China,has exceeded 3500 ha;however,problems such as low farmer willingness to plant(WTP)winter forage still remain.Methods:A total of 219 farmers were surveyed in Taiyuan,Lvliang,and Jinzhong.We analyzed the factors influencing farmer WTP forage triticale,focusing on personal,family,land,and cognition characteristics.We used a binary logistic regression model to quantify the influence of various factors on farmer behavior and conducted a robustness check and heterogeneity analysis.Results:“Age”was negatively correlated with farmer WTP—farmers 50 years of age and older showed less WTP.“Land lease situation”was also negatively correlated with WTP.Factors that positively correlated with WTP were“land areas,”“raising of livestock,”“size of labor force,”and“development prospect.”Conclusions:Many farmers are over 50 years of age,land lessors,and have low WTP winter forage.Farmers who raise livestock and have large labor forces,huge land areas,and good cultivation prospects have a high WTP.This study identifies the factors influencing farmers'WTP to assist in the development of the forage triticale industry in the study region,improving land resource utilization and efficiency.The findings are likely to have wider relevance and application.

社交媒体使用、媒介素养与新型职业农民创新意愿

农村创新创业活动的开展首先要激发新型职业农民的创新意愿。然而,当前对社交媒体与新型职业农民创新意愿关系的研究仍显薄弱。基于367位新型职业农民样本,文章尝试以创新扩散理论和计划行为理论为基础构建研究模型,探索社交媒体使用、媒介素养和新型职业农民创新意愿之间的关系。研究结果表明:新型职业农民的社交媒体使用不仅可以直接促进其创新意愿的提升,也可以通过创新主观规范和感知创新行为控制中介变量发挥作用;社交媒体使用对影响新型职业农民创新的主观因素和客观因素具有正面效应;新型职业农民的媒介素养在此过程中起到了积极的调节作用,强化了社交媒体使用与创新态度、创新主观规范和感知创新行为控制之间的关系。

Agricultural Policy, Climate Factors and Grain Output: Evidence From Household Survey Data in Rural China

This paper estimates a stochastic frontier function using a panel data set that includes 4 961 farmer households for the period of 2005-2009 to decompose the growth of grain production and the total factor productivity （TFP） growth at the farmer level. The empirical results show that the major contributor to the grain output growth for farmers is input growth and that its average contribution accounts for 60.92% of farmer’s grain production growth in the period of 2006-2009, whereas the average contributions sourced from TFP growth and residuals are only 17.30 and 21.78%, respectively. The growth of intermediate inputs is a top contributor with an average contribution of 44.46%, followed by the planted area （18.16%）, investment in fixed assets （1.05%）, and labor input （-2.75%）, indicating that the contribution from the farmer’s input growth is mainly due to the growth of intermediate inputs and that the decline in labor inputs has become an obstacle for farmers in seeking grain output growth. Among the elements consisting of TFP growth, the contribution of technical progress is the largest （32.04%）, followed by grain subsidies （8.55%）, the average monthly temperature （4.26%）, the average monthly precipitation （-0.88%）, the adjusted scale effect （-5.66%）, and growth in technical efficiency （-21.01%）. In general, the contribution of climate factors and agricultural policy factor are positive and significant.

Influences of Sense of Place on Farming Households' Relocation Willingness in Areas Threatened by Geological Disasters:Evidence from China

Scholars from environmental psychology,geography, disaster science, and sociology have recently focused attention on evacuation and relocation behaviors and influencing factors in hazard-threatened areas. However, existing studies are mainly focused on developed countries and the influence of individual characteristics,household characteristics, and the perception of risk of urban households on evacuation and relocation behaviors.Few studies examine developing countries and the influence of farmers' sense of place in geological hazardthreatened areas. Using statistics of farming households in an area threatened by landslides, this is a pilot study to explore the relationship of sense of place to the relocation willingness of farming households while controlling for other variables. The results show that:(1) Households with higher scores of place identity and place dependence are less willing to relocate, whereas place attachment has no significant relationship to household relocation willingness;(2) Risk perception dimensions, including probability,threat, and controllability have a significant relationship to household relocation willingness, while worry and fear of the unknown have no significant relationship;(3) Household characteristics, including income, whether a household has experienced economic loss from landslides, and social support are significantly correlated with household relocation willingness, while gender, age, experience, distance to hazard sites, size of household, children, older people, and housing material are not. The results for information and education are not robust. This study contributes to the current literature by improving the understanding of the relationship of sense of place to the relocation willingness of farming households in villages threatened by geological disasters in rural China.

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.