Adoption and ex-post impacts of sustainable manure management practices on income and happiness: Evidence from swine breeding farmers in rural Hubei, China

Abstract

Swine manure has become rural China's primary source of agricultural non-point pollution. Various sustainable manure management practices (SMMPs) have been promoted in rural areas. Although SMMPs are becoming more popular, little evidence exists regarding their ex-post impacts. Using survey data from 710 swine breeding households in rural Hubei, China, this paper estimates the adoption and impacts of SMMPs on household income and happiness. This paper discusses the use of an endogenous switching regression model to solve the endogeneity problem that arises from both observable and unobservable factors. The results showed that 48.5% of farmers sampled adopted SMMPs. Furthermore, on average, the adoption of SMMPs was associated with a 28.7% increase in household income per capita and a 22% improvement in happiness. Then robustness tests were conducted to verify these results. Several factors influence the adoption of SMMPs, including health, swine breeding scale, swine breeding experience, technical training, internet, waste management facility and previous adoption experience. These findings highlight the importance of promoting SMMPs in rural areas to increase farmer income and enhancing their perceived happiness, and measures should be taken to scale up their adoption of SMMPs.