Pig farmers' willingness to recover their production under COVID-19 pandemic shock in China – Empirical evidence from a farm survey

Abstract

Pig farmers' willingness to recover production under the COVID-19 pandemic shock is significant to recover live pigs' supply in China in 2020. Increasing farmers' willingness to recover pig production contributes to enhance pig supply, stabilize the pig and pork market, and to improve pig farmers' income. This research studies the determinants of pig farmers' willingness to recover production under COVID-19 pandemic shock by applying survey data of 201 farmers in Huai'an City and Lin'an City and a logit regression model. The estimation results show that a farmer's risk perception, the duration time of a farmer's feed supply under COVID-19 pandemic shock, whether or not being a cooperative member, and a farmer's knowledge on government's policy designed to encourage pig production, a farmer's education level and production experience are the key determinants to a farmer's willingness to recover pig production. Thus, it's important for policymakers to solve the problems for farmers to get access to feed during the pandemic, to encourage the development of cooperatives, as well as to issue and advocate policies to encourage pig production. The study contributes to the scant literature by providing fresh empirical evidences on determinants of farmers' willingness to recover pig production. It has significance to farmers and governments to enhance farmers' willingness to recover production, which contributes to secure pig supply in China after the COVID-19 pandemic.