Labor Endowment, Cultivated Land Fragmentation, and Ecological Farming Adoption Strategies among Farmers in Jiangxi Province, China

Abstract

A deeper understanding of the factors that influence the ecological farming adoption strategies of farmers can help in developing effective adaptation measures to mitigate the degradation of cultivated land quality and ecological degradation. This study used a stratified random sampling technique to select 1488 households in Jiangxi Province, while the double-hurdle model was used to analyze the influence of labor endowments (LEs) and cultivated land fragmentation (CLF) on ecological farming decision-making. The results indicate that LEs and CLF play important roles in farmers’ decision-making with regard to ecological farming. To be more specific, the total household population and CLF have negative effects on adoption willingness, while the number of laborers has a positive effect. For the degree of adoption, the total household population has a negative effect, while the number of laborers and part-time employment have positive effects. In addition, farmers’ ecological farming behavior is also influenced by factors such as education, agricultural income, cooperatives, and agricultural subsidies. Overall, farmers have a high willingness to adopt ecological farming, but the degree of actual adoption is low. This is not conducive to the promotion of ecological farming techniques and the sustainable development of agriculture in China. The study proposes that the government should further improve financial investment and provide relevant technical services. In addition, a temporary work platform should be set up for farmers to encourage them to find other work during the agricultural low season.