Farmers’ Cognition of and Satisfaction with Policy Affect Willingness of Returning Straw to Field: Based on Evolutionary Game Perspective

Abstract

As an important measure to promote the black soil protection strategy, returning straw to the fields is the choice of government policy to affect the decision-making behavior of farmers, and the policy implementation process is a dynamic game equilibrium process between farmers and the government. In order to explore the influence of policies on farmers’ straw-returning decision-making and stability processes, this paper used a logit model to analyze the influencing factors on farmers’ straw-returning decision-making behavior based on the survey data of 397 farmers in Hailun City, Heilongjiang Province. This study also constructs the evolutionary game model between farmers and government, carrying out a stability strategy analysis and numerical simulation. The results evidence that farmers’ cognition of fertilization technology, ecological protection, policy satisfaction and cognition of straw returning recipients have a significant negative influence on their willingness to return to the field, and the effect intensity decreases successively. What is more, cognition of crop disease resistance has a positive effect on the willingness of returning straw to the field. It is found that the game balancing process of farmers’ behavior and government straw returning policy evolution can be divided into three stages. At present, China’s straw returning policy is in the intermediate stage, and government needs to provide comprehensive compensation for returning straw to the field according to local conditions such as farmers’ willingness, crop conditions and so on.