The Women’s Preference for the Management Patterns of Farmland Water Conservation and Their Willing of PIM in Chinese Grain-Producing Areas

Abstract

The Chinese grain-producing areas undertake the heavy responsibility for the national food security, and the management patterns of farmland water conservation play a decisive role in the grain yield. Women are the main force of agriculture production at most areas. The research from the perspective of female, the vulnerable group has important practical significance. Based on the data of the grain-producing areas, Hubei Province, the multinomial model and the Probit model are applied to analyzing women’s preference for the management patterns of the farmland water conservation and their willing of participatory irrigation management (PIM). It turned out that the collective management or the family-mode management solved the irrigation problems of dispersive and finely-divided farmland, the rural elites could decrease the marketization degree of the farmland water conservation, and the male prime rural labors might relieve the pressure of irrigation. Individual pattern of irrigation management is insufficient to ensure the seasonal demands of paddy crops. The rural education, the arable land area and the rural elites’ management contribute to enhance the women’s willing of PIM, and the male prime rural labor decreases his willing of PIM.