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.

Charcoal Production in a Cocoa-Farming Area： Plant Species Used and Their Sources

The authors investigated the plant species used for charcoal production and their sources and the willingness of the producers to plant charcoal-making species. Furthermore, the authors indirectly determined the involvement of farmers in charcoal production in Atwima Mponua District of Ghana. A total of 120 producers were interviewed and simple ranking was used for the analysis. Twenty-three plant species were used with the first, second, third and fourth which were Celtis mildbraediL Cylicodiscus gabunensis, Margaritoria discoides and Amphimas pterocarpoides respectively. However, the Amphimas pterocarpoides was not among the traditional charcoal-producing species. The wood used came from seven different sources. None of the charcoal producers had a plantation of charcoal-producing species. Only 13 % of the producers were willing to plant, 87% of them who were not willing to plant indicated that they would leave charcoal production if the resource got finished. The 120 charcoal producers were made up roughly of 56% males, and 44% females and in which 69.2% of them were farmers.