Effect of land transfer on farmers' willingness to pay for straw return in Southwest China

Abstract

Straw return is a kind of agricultural cleaner production technology. It can not only reduce environmental pollution caused by straw burning, but also help to improve soil conditions. However, few studies focus on the impact of increasingly active land transfer on farmers' willingness to pay for straw return. This study had a theoretical framework for systematic analysis and based on data from 1080 households in Sichuan Province, China. The conditional value assessment method (CVM) was used to estimate the interval of farmers' willingness to pay for straw return, and IV-Probit and IV-Tobit models were constructed to control endogeneity and to explore the effects of land transfer on farmers' willingness to pay for straw return. The results showed that (1) only 37.69% of farmers were willing to pay for straw return, and the average amount of farmers' willingness to pay was 12.94–34.41 RMB/666.7 m2-season. (2) Land transfer, especially land transfer-in, increased farmers' willingness to pay and willingness to pay amount for straw return, but there were noticeable intergenerational differences and differences in land operation scale. (3) The perception of economic value and the perception of payment effectiveness play a positive mediating role. The conclusion provides reference for improving straw return policy and promoting agricultural cleaner sustainable production. It is suggested to encourage land contiguous circulation to promote land integration, and reduce the price of straw return. At the same time, farmers' correct cognition of straw return should be improved through extensive publicity, especially for the new generation and large-scale farmers.