Farmers’ Willingness to Participate in Voluntary Field Water Management Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Projects Based on a Context–Attitude–Behavior Framework

Abstract

The development of the greenhouse gas (GHGs) voluntary emission reduction market has created a new way for all agricultural GHGs emission reduction projects. Figuring out how to drive farmers to participate in the market is the key to the development of the agricultural voluntary emission reduction project mechanism. Current research on farmers’ participation in voluntary emission reduction projects has mostly been conducted from the perspective of the economic, social, and ecological benefits of the project and lacks research on analyzing farmers’ willingness to participate in combination with specific GHGs operational mechanisms. To find out how the operational mechanism of the field water management voluntary emission reduction (FWMVER) projects influences farmers’ willingness to participate in the project, this study constructed the attitude–context–behavior theoretical framework to consider the FWMVER operational mechanism. Based on the survey data of 789 rice farmers in GuangXi, China, the structural equation model (SEM) was adopted to analyze the impact of social networks, social trust, social norms, profit expectations, cost expectations, and satisfaction with the government in relation to the farmers’ willingness to participate in FWMVER projects. Results showed that social networks, social trust, social norms, profit expectations, cost expectations, and satisfaction with the government had significant impacts on the willingness of farmers to participate in FWMVER projects. Satisfaction with the government can effectively regulate the profit expectations and cost expectations for farmers to participate in the FWMVER projects. Policy implications were proposed based on analytical results to advise local governments to develop agricultural carbon finance, to improve public services in agricultural production, and to encourage establishing non-governmental organizations in rural areas involved in voluntary agricultural GHGs emission reduction projects.