Part-time Farming Research Articles

Balance or Quality: Impact of Part-Time Farming on the Nutrition and Health of Rural Residents

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between part-time farming and the nutrition and health of rural residents, test the possible effects through two potential pathways—income effect and time effect—and further analyze the family heterogeneity characteristic of downward intergenerational support. Using the ordered probit model and cross-sectional data from the China Rural Revitalization Comprehensive Survey (CRRS), which provide information on household income, health conditions, and nutritional caloric intake, this study estimates the relationship between part-time farming and the nutritional health of rural residents. The effects are decomposed into income (measured by dietary diversity scores and food consumption expenditures) and time effects (measured by excess caloric intake), with additional analysis on family heterogeneity concerning downward intergenerational support. Part-time farming positively correlates with rural residents’ nutritional health through two pathways: income effect (improved dietary diversity and increased food consumption) and time effect (negative impact of excessive caloric intake). Downward intergenerational support mitigates the negative time effect. This paper highlights the often-overlooked impact of part-time farming on rural nutrition and health, emphasizing non-linear effects and the significant role of downward intergenerational support, thus filling a gap in existing research.

Effect of Pre-Harvest Losses on Profitability of Plantain Production in Bayelsa State, Nigeria

The study examined the effect of pre-harvest losses on profitability of plantain farmers in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to: describe the socio economic characteristics of plantain farmers, examine pre-harvest losses of plantain on profitability and determine factors that influence pre-harvest losses of plantain. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select five (5) local government areas (Yenagoa, Ogbia, Kolokuma-Opokuma, Sagbama and Southern Ijaw) purposively based on their predominance in commercial plantain farmers and six (6) communities each from the 5 LGAs respectively, and, furthermore, eight (8) plantain farmers in each community, making a total number of two hundred and forty (240) plantain farmers. Structured questionnaire was used to elicit the required information from the selected respondents. The result indicates that 55.1% of the respondents fall between the age range of 31-50 years, with the mean age of 44 years. Males (51.9%) dominated plantain production in the study area. The majority of the plantain farmers were married (60.0%), 95.5% had formal education, 60.0% had 1-15 years of farm experience, 77.9% were part-time farmers, 98.3% had family size of 1-10 persons in their households with a mean of 5 persons, and 56.7% had farm size of 2-4 hectares. The result further shows that 56.7% used hired labour while 86.7% had no month contact with extension agent. Sucker, fertilizer, household size, and educational level had a significant relationship with plantain production at various probability levels, indicating profitability. Based on the findings, it was therefore recommended that there is a need for the farmers to put up parameter fencing to prevent theft cases which is extremely high and adversely affects net farm income. However, government and non-governmental organizations can support in terms of granting farmers' soft loans in order to reduce the burden.

ASSESSMENT OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS INFLUENCING FARMERS PARTICIPATION LEVEL IN COMMUNITY BASED EXTENSION ORGANIZATION IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

The study investigated the socio-economic factors influencing farmers' participation level in community-based extension organizations in Kaduna State, Nigeria. Four hundred and thirty-seven (437) Community Based Extension Organizations (CBEOs) participants and non-participants were selected using multi-stage sampling technique. Data for the study were analysed using descriptive (frequency, mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics. The results showed that both categories of respondents had crop farming as their primary occupation with the participants into full-time farming while the non-participants were into part-time farming. The mean farm size of participants and non-participants was 3 and 2 ha. respectively. Several roles like provision of credit/loans, building capacity through training of farmers, were carried out by the various groups and a high level of participation in the CBEOs was observed among CBEOs group members. A difference (N119,908.467) in average annual income was observed between the CBEOs members and non-members and this was in favour of farmer participants of CBEOs. Multiple regression analysis revealed that significant variables to farmers level of participation in the CBEOs include: farming status, farm size, farming experience and farmers' income level. The study recommended that there is need for the leaders of the various CBEOs and others saddled with the responsibilities of training farmers in the groups to train the farmers more in other to develop capacity on farming skills and the need to adopt innovations, other modern farm practices and participate actively in CBEOs.

Has the Household Old-Age Burden Affected Farm Household Incomes? Evidence from a Survey of Chinese Farm Households

Income increase is an important way to achieve comprehensive human development and to escape from poverty, and the growing aging problem in rural China poses a challenge to farm household income increase. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the impact of China’s rural old-age burden on farm household income, this paper empirically examines the impact and mechanism of household old-age burden on farm household income based on the data from the 2023 micro-farm field survey of China’s Henan Province, utilizing linear regression modeling and mediation effect modeling, filling the research gaps in the related fields. The results of the study found that, firstly, family old-age burden has a significant impact on the income of farm households, and that the heavier the family old-age burden, the lower the total income of farm households. Secondly, from the results of the heterogeneity of the impact, the poorer the health condition, the greater the negative impact of family old-age burden on farm household income. Old-age burden has a greater impact on high-income farm households than on low-income farm households, and old-age burden has a significant impact on the income of part-time farm households, while the impact is not significant on purely farm and non-farm households. Thirdly, the heavier the household old-age burden, the more unfavorable it is to the non-farm employment of farm households, thus affecting the income capacity of farm households. Finally, corresponding countermeasures and recommendations are put forward in three areas, namely, the continuous improvement of the social old-age security system, the realization of the function of the social old-age mechanism as an old-age pocket for key special groups, and the improvement of the social flexible employment mechanism.

How Does Land Fragmentation Affect Agricultural Technical Efficiency? Based on Mediation Effects Analysis

The scientific revelation of the mechanism underlying land fragmentation’s influence on agricultural technical efficiency is extremely important. This study utilized survey data from 305 villages across 12 provinces in Southern China in 2020 to assess technical efficiency through the application of the stochastic frontier production function. Moreover, we investigated the direct impact of land fragmentation on technical efficiency and the indirect impact transmitted through crop diversification and part-time farming by employing Tobit and mediating effect models, respectively. The key findings are as follows: (1) The sampled farmers, on average, operated 0.614 hectares of land with 17.395 plots, and the mean of their technical efficiency was 0.630. (2) The overall effect of land fragmentation on technical efficiency demonstrated a “U”-shaped relationship. (3) Crop diversification and part-time farming were mediating factors in the impact of land fragmentation on technical efficiency. Specifically, an “inverted U”-shaped relationship existed between land fragmentation and crop diversification, whereas a negative linear relationship was observed between land fragmentation and part-time farming. Conversely, crop diversification presented a positive linear relationship with technical efficiency, and part-time farming had an “inverted U”-shaped relationship with technical efficiency. (4) The impact of land fragmentation on technical efficiency varied across altitude zones. It is recommended to control land fragmentation based on local conditions, encourage crop diversification, and strengthen employment guidance and skills training for farmers to ensure the orderly transfer of land.

Value Perception, Government Regulation, and Farmers’ Behavior toward Continuing to Maintain the Sloping Land Conversion Program

As a major ecological project with the largest investment scale, strongest policy support, most extensive involvement, and the highest level of public participation in the world, the Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP) implemented by China is important for protecting the ecological environment and achieving long-term stability. Consolidating the SLCP’s achievements is key to its sustainable operation. Based on a sample of 612 farmers in Guizhou Province, this paper discusses the impact of value perception and government regulation on farmers’ behavior in terms of their continued SLCP maintenance. The results show that (1) value perception and government regulation are important factors affecting the sustainability of farmers’ behavior of continuing to maintain the SLCP. Perceived economic value and perceived cost input, as dimensions of value perception, and policy publicity and economic incentives, as dimensions of government regulation, have important influences on farmers’ continued SLCP maintenance. (2) There are complementary effects between value perception and government regulation. Policy publicity and perceived ecological value, technical guidance and perceived economic and social value, and economic incentives and perceived economic value can have complementary effects on farmers’ continued maintenance behavior. (3) Value perception and government regulation heterogeneously impact different groups of farmers. In terms of intergenerational differences, perceived cost inputs and punitive measures significantly affect only new-generation farmers. In terms of farmer type, perceived economic value does not significantly affect nonfarmers; perceived cost input significantly affects part-time farmers engaged mainly in off-farm employment, and technical guidance and economic incentives have the greatest impact on pure farmers. In terms of tree species, perceived cost input and policy publicity significantly impact only ecological forest farmers, while technical guidance has a greater impact on economic forest farmers. The findings provide an in-depth understanding of the mechanism underlying farmers’ behavior in maintaining the SLCP and offer a reference for promoting the goals of forestry ecological policies against the background of rural revitalization and green development.

Adoption mode of agricultural machinery and food productivity: evidence from China

Many researchers argue that the adoption of agricultural mechanization services (AMSs) is an important way for smallholder farmers in China to engage in modern agricultural production. However, the impact of the adoption mode of agricultural machinery on food productivity remains under-analyzed. We investigate the links between the adoption mode of agricultural machinery and food productivity using data on 795 grain farmers collected from the North China Plain. The results indicate that, compared with service outsourcing (SO), self-purchase (SP) improves the technical efficiency of farms; however, it reduces the input efficiency of agricultural machinery. The channel of the effect is that, although SO can reduce the redundancy of agricultural machinery's input, the opportunistic behavior of AMS suppliers and labor supervision problems lead to a decline in agricultural machinery's operation quality. The impact of the adoption mode of agricultural machinery on food productivity is asymmetrical among different types of farmers. Large-scale and professional farmers benefit more from SP, whereas small-scale and part-time farmers benefit more from SO. The AMS is not perfect, and the Chinese government should pay close attention to the loss of technical efficiency in agricultural production caused by the opportunistic behavior of AMS suppliers. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust the agricultural machinery subsidy policy and reduce the transaction cost of AMS.

Agricultural subsidies on common prosperity: Evidence from the Chinese social survey

Based on the data from the Chinese Social Survey (CSS) of 13,359 interviewed farm households, the paper systematically evaluates the impact of agricultural subsidies on the farmers' common prosperity by measuring the development of common prosperity from the aspects of “comprehensive” prosperity and “universal” affluence. The research draws the following conclusions: (1) Agricultural subsidies significantly raises the per capita income level of rural households, reduces income inequality between households, contributes to “comprehensive” prosperity and “universal” affluence, and realizes the goal of common prosperity. Also, this paper uses 2SLS, LIML, GMM, replacement and combination of variables, simultaneous quantile regression, and exclusion of outliers to test the robustness of the baseline regression results, which remains robust after a series of tests. (2) The effect of agricultural subsidies on the farmers' common prosperity will show obvious heterogeneity phenomenon due to the differences in the natural conditions, economic development level, policy environment and agricultural business scale of the region, which need to be treated differently. (3) The transfer of agricultural land plays a mediating role. Agricultural subsidies will encourage farmers to enhance the transfer of agricultural land, thereby raising incomes and reducing income inequality, which will help farmers to realize common prosperity. Part-time farming plays a moderating role. The lower the degree of part-time farming, the stronger the effect of agricultural subsidies in promoting the common prosperity of farmers. Our study gives innovative experience and ideas for improving the agricultural subsidy policy system, optimizing the structure of agricultural subsidies, and then using agricultural subsidies to more comprehensively promote common prosperity in rural areas.

A Study on the Professionalization of Young Part-Time Farmers Based on Two-Way Push–Pull Model

A growing number of young Chinese farmers are abandoning agriculture. This research aimed to identify ways to stimulate enthusiasm among young people for choosing careers in agriculture and to promote the professionalization of young part-time farmers. This study surveyed 310 young part-time farmers in Chongqing City and Tianjin City. We constructed the Two-Way Push–Pull (TWPP) model to assess the willingness of young part-time farmers to work professionally in agriculture. The results show that agricultural policy support, hometown attachment, agricultural income, and agricultural industrialization significantly influence young part-time farmers’ willingness to pursue professional farming careers. However, risks of farming, children’s education, urban housing, and non-farm income negatively impact their willingness. The government must strengthen policy support’s influence on their willingness to motivate young part-time farmers to become professional farmers. This could include reducing farming risks, advancing agricultural industrialization, improving farmers’ professional status and reputation, and increasing the quality of rural public services.

Multifunctional agriculture in a peri-urban fringe: Chinese farmers’ responses to shifts in policy and changing socio-economic conditions

Recent Five-Year Plans and No. 1 Central Documents have emphasised the need for Chinese agriculture to play multiple functions to enhance rural development, alleviate rural poverty and increase agricultural productivity. The concept of Chinese agriculture as multifunctional is explored, linking it to specific policy aims, with three key historical phases of the development of multifunctional agriculture (MFA) recognised. MFA has progressed rapidly in rural-urban fringes across China, and its recent evolution is investigated herewith within two case-study districts (Baqiao and Lintong) in the megacity of Xi’an, Shaanxi Province. Since the economic reforms of the late 1970s, farmers in the area have greatly increased horticultural production to supply the substantial local urban market, displacing traditional grain cultivation, although much high-quality farmland has been lost to urban development, especially in Baqiao. The city has also supplied tourists for farm-based tourism activities (nong jia le), including pick-your-own fruit. A questionnaire survey of sample farm households in 17 villages in the two districts generated detailed information on land management, including farm-based enterprises, participation in co-operatives, marketing, and both recent and future planned changes to farms. Factor analysis of mixed (qualitative and quantitative) data (FAMD) and hierarchical clustering of principal components (HCPC) were used to examine typical characteristics of MFA in the peri-urban fringe. This yielded five principal dimensions of farming, with on-farm environmental actions as a key characteristic. There were also three different clusters of farmers, differentiated between commercial horticultural production, contrasting less intensive part-time farmers with farmers in co-operatives and/or producing for ‘dragonhead’ enterprises. Renewed government support for grain cultivation to increase food availability has led to a minor reversion to cereal production, while multifunctionality has been impacted negatively by the Covid pandemic, with reduced tourist numbers. Loss of revenue from tourism is prompting farmers to search for other income streams via increased agricultural outputs, new marketing outlets, and contributions to a more diversified rural economy involving value-adding to agricultural products.

Role of Indigenous Social Organizations in Enhancing Food Security: A Case Study of Some Selected States in Niger Delta Region, Nigeria

The study examined role of indigenous social organizations in enhancing food security in selected states of in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. It examined the farmers’ characteristics, years of experience and roles carried out by indigenous social organizations, ascertained perceived benefits of participating farmers, and; identified the factors that limit farmers from effectively participating in these organizations. Primary data used were obtained through the use of reliable and validated question instrument. The respondents numbering 224 were selected through multi- stage sampling technique. The generated data were analyzed with the use of descriptive and inferential statistics. Results showed that most (58.48%) of the farmers were also civil servants and they (73.66%) were into part-time farming. Participants of indigenous social organizations (ISO) average farm size, farm experience, and farm income were 3.01 ha., 11.4 years and N280,750.00 respectively. The regular activities carried out by the respondents were savings and loans, provision of credits to members, crop farming, supply of farm inputs and processing of farm products (they had means ? 2.00). Perceived benefits achieved from participating in their groups include improvement of farm output, farm income, standard of living and farming skills. The difference in mean farm income between participants and non – participants was N116,964.29 (significant at the 5% level) and it was in favour of group participants. In addition, Logistic regression showed that farm size (b = 1.758), farming status (b = 0.839), farming experience (b = 0.259) and participation index (b = 0.243) were significant to respondents farm income. Based on findings the study recommends the need for the indigenous group leaders to seek and incorporate members’ views in times of designing activities for the group. Also, leaders of the groups should ensure that benefits accruing to the groups are equitably distribute

Typology of German sheep farms - Differences in structure, characteristics, challenges and the provision of goods and services

Sheep farming in Germany is continuously declining and the reasons for this development are manifold. This article aims to contribute to the research on the current situation of sheep farming by providing a typologisation of German sheep farms. Based on a comprehensive survey (N = 359), a cluster analysis with the Partitioning Around Medoids (PAM) algorithm was carried out. A total of nine farm types could be identified: five types of full-time farms, two types of part-time farms, two types of small-scale and hobby farms. The farms differ in terms of their size, production focus, farming systems and livestock management. The full-time farms focus partly on landscape management and partly on the production of meat, keeping their sheep in a variety of different farming systems. The farms vary significantly in flock size and the area farmed. The part-time and small-scale farms keep their sheep almost exclusively in paddocks. For part-time and small-scale farms, the focus is less on landscape management and more on production. The proportion of part-time and small-scale farms practicing purebred breeding and keeping endangered breeds is higher than among the full-time farms. While the number of lambs reared per ewe is higher on part-time and small-scale farms, lambs reach slaughter maturity faster on full-time farms. Across all identified farm types, the economic situation as well as the future prospects are not rated very positively and lack of profitability and flock protection are identified as major problems.

1 Challenges in the Pasture

Abstract Cow-calf farms are abundant across the southeastern US and there is a wide diversity of farm sizes and types of farmers. Farms include small-scale part-time farms, and large commercial-scale farms, often integrated with other farm enterprises. Many farmers have full-time employment off the farm and little if any hired labor, such that there is little time to devote to farming activities. In contrast, large farms often have access to labor, equipment and other inputs that may not be available to small farms. The diversity of farms and farmer demographics makes extension programming challenging as motivational factors vary considerably. Many pasture management practices proven by research have very low levels of adoption including active grazing management, pasture renovation, hay testing, etc. We assume that all farmers are focused on profitability, but this is clearly not the case especially with small part-time farmers. Other motivations may be enjoyment of spending time with animals, time spent with family, improving animal welfare, interest in machinery and “gadgets”, and other non-farm interests including using a cow-calf enterprise to hold land in some kind of agriculture for future development. New management practices may make sense from a profitability perspective but might require the development of new skills that the farmer does not have. Additionally, there may be other barriers including access to necessary equipment, conflicting information provided by advisers, and expertise in simple practices such as planting and spraying. As an example, novel endophyte tall fescue (NETF) has potential to eliminate the negative aspects of endophyte infected tall fescue while maintaining the desirable agronomic characteristics. While NETF technology is research proven and has been available to producers for over two decades, adoption has been very slow. The Alliance for Grassland Renewal is a multi-state private/public collaborative formed to promote the appropriate adoption of NETF. The Alliance conducts workshops to teach farmers and their advisors about how to best implement the NETF technology. The collaborative effort provides a more uniform set of recommendations than was formerly available through each member state. Through workshop evaluations we found several important factors that limit adoption including 1) the balance of cost and benefit is unclear, 2) farmers have limited financial resources, 3) the land is rented or unsuitable for renovation, and 4) farmers lack of knowledge, and 5) farm forage reserves are limiting. Many of these pasture management practices are difficult to adopt because they require many sequential steps that must be completed in a timely way. This may leave the farmer hesitant to take the first step in the process. For practices that are very different than standard management, use of on-farm demonstrations and hands-on learning have proven valuable.

Research on the effect of agricultural science and technology service supply from the perspective of farmers' differentiation

Comparing the priority order of different agricultural science and technology services adopted by cotton farmers and exploring the influencing factors of agricultural science and technology service adoption by cotton farmers from the perspective of farmer differentiation is significantly influential for high-quality agricultural development. We explore factors influencing the adoption of agricultural science and technology services by a cotton farmer from the perspective of farmer differentiation based on 335 research data in Xinjiang of China. The results show that cotton farmers adopted agricultural science and technology services in the following order: pest control technology, good seed technology, and precision sowing technology. Farm household fragmentation significantly affects the adoption of agricultural technology services by farm households. Gender and satisfaction with agricultural science and technology services were significantly influenced the adoption of agricultural science and technology services by the pure and part-time farmers; the variables of education level, planting area, and the number of household laborer was effected the adoption of agricultural science and technology services by the pure farmer. As such, organizations of agricultural science and technology service should develop personalized services according to the characteristics of cotton farmer endowments, improve the timeliness of agricultural science and technology services, and enhance service quality.

Difference in the influence of internet use on the relative poverty among farmers with different income structures

Compared with absolute poverty, relative poverty is more concerned about social equity. Network poverty alleviation is one of the effective ways to bridge the urban–rural digital divide and solve relative poverty problem. Existing studies have confirmed the positive role of Internet use on the alleviation of relative poverty among farmers, but there is much less study analyze the differences in the influence of Internet use on the relative poverty among farmers with different income structure. In this study, we use the data from China Family Panel Studies and use the Probit model for benchmark regression to study the influence of Internet use on rural household relative poverty. Also, we use the redefinition of core variables to conduct robustness tests and use instrumental variables to deal with endogenous issues. The empirical results show that Internet use significantly reduces the probability of farmers falling into relative poverty, and Internet use has a better effect on poverty reduction for full-time farmers than part-time farmers and non-farmers. Further the analysis of the impact mechanism finds that Internet use could impact the relative poverty of rural households through its effects on their information channels, human capital and social capital. Then, we analyze the differences in the impact mechanisms of Internet use on different types of farmers and find that the mediating effect of information channel was not significant for full-time farmers; while for part-time farmers, enhancing human capital play a more important role.

The Impact of Rural Households’ Part-Time Farming on Grain Output: Promotion or Inhibition?

Given the prevalence of part-time farming behaviors in rural households, studying the impact of part-time farming behaviors on grain output is of great practical significance. Using a panel dataset of 5629 Chinese national rural fixed observation point data from 2009 to 2015, this paper used the Propensity Score Matching-Difference in Differences method (PSM-DID) to examine the impact and dynamic effect of rural household’s part-time farming behavior on grain output. In addition, the paper also aims to explore the mechanism of how part-time farming affects grain output by running an OLS in an intermediary effect model. We analyzed the data from two aspects: the effect of rural households’ part-time farming decisions on grain output and the relationship between the income from rural households’ part-time farming and grain output. After accounting for the control variables, the results showed a significant positive correlation between rural households’ part-time farming behavior and grain output, with an influence coefficient of 0.304 tons increase in total grain output. While rural households’ part-time farming behavior inhibited grain output over the short term, it ultimately promoted grain output in the long run. The promotion effect increased with the duration of the rural households’ part-time farming. Moreover, the degree of part-time farming and its impact on grain output are mediated by agricultural labor inputs and agricultural technology inputs. Hence, differences in the employment times of rural households’ part-time farming can lead to varying results in grain output. To improve the efficiency of grain output, this study recommends that the government implement policies that promote orderly rural households’ part-time farming behavior.

The Impact of Agricultural Insurance on Farmers’ Enthusiasm for Sugarcane Production: Evidence from Guangxi, China

Improving farmers’ enthusiasm for sugarcane production is of significance for maintaining the stability of sugarcane cultivation, as well as ensuring the sustainability and security of the national sugar supply. Based on rural household survey data from five major sugarcane producing counties in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in 2018, this paper analyzes the impact of agricultural insurance on farmers’ enthusiasm to grow sugarcane using Probit, IV-Probit, and 2SLS methods, examines the problem of heterogeneity due to differences in farmers’ degree of part-time occupation, and analyzes the mechanisms of agricultural insurance in affecting farmers’ enthusiasm for sugarcane production through income effect and substitution effect pathways. The findings of the study are as follows: first, participation in agricultural insurance significantly increases farmers’ enthusiasm for sugarcane production; second, the impact of agricultural insurance on farmers’ enthusiasm for sugarcane production is heterogeneous depending on the degree of part-time farming, and the intensity of the impact decreases as the degree of part-time farming increases; finally, agricultural insurance increases farmers’ enthusiasm for sugarcane production through income effects such as increased farm income and income expectations on the one hand, and positively influences farmers’ enthusiasm for sugarcane production through competitive crop substitution effects at both agricultural and non-farm levels on the other. Based on these findings, policy measures are proposed in this paper, including increasing the level of sugarcane insurance coverage, improving the pricing strategy of sugarcane, and accelerating the mechanization of the entire sugarcane production process.

The effect of perceived value on farmers' livestock manure resource utilization behavior: Evidence from Shandong, China.

The rapid development of animal husbandry has brought many problems such as ecological environmental pollution and public health damage. The resource utilization of livestock manure is the key way to deal with the above crisis and turn waste into treasure. Based on the theory of perceived value, this paper uses multi-group structural equation model to explore the driving mechanism of perceived value on the resource utilization behavior of livestock manure. The results showed that: (1) The resource utilization behavior of livestock manure followed the logic of "cognitive level → cognitive trade-off → perceived value → behavioral intention → behavioral performance." Perceived benefit and perceived risk have positive and reverse driving effects on perceived value, respectively. Perceived value has a positive driving effect on behavioral intention. The behavioral intention has a positive driving effect on utilization behavior. (2) Among the observed variables of perceived benefits, ecological benefits have the greatest impact; Among the observed variables of perceived risk, economic risk has the greatest impact. Among the observed variables of perceived value, Significance cognition has the greatest influence. Among the observed variables of behavioral intention, utilization intention has the greatest influence. (3) The perceived value has a differential effect on the utilization behavior of livestock manure resources of different part-time farmers, and the driving effect is more obvious for full-time farmers. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the resource utilization system of livestock manure, increase the channel for realizing the output of manure resources, strengthen technical assistance and policy subsidies, and implement policies according to local conditions to improve the overall perceived value of farmers.

Impact of Village Governance Quality on the Satisfaction of Farmers’ Life Experiences

This study presents a discussion concerning the impact of village governance quality on farmers’ life experience satisfaction using a multiple linear regression model. Accordingly, there is an analysis regarding the heterogeneity of the impact of village governance quality on farmers’ life experience satisfaction from the perspective of income differentiation and career differentiation. The results show the following: (1) The improvement of village governance quality is conducive to improving the satisfaction of farmers’ life experiences. Among them, the living and social conditions have the greatest impact, followed by village cohesion, and then village inclusiveness. (2) From the perspective of income differentiation, the quality of village governance plays the largest role in promoting the life experience satisfaction of middle-income farmers, followed by low-income farmers, and then high-income farmers. (3) From the perspective of occupational differentiation, the quality of village governance has the largest role in promoting the satisfaction of part-time farmers’ life experiences, followed by full-time farmers, and then non-agricultural farmers. Based on the research conclusion, it is suggested that strengthening the quality of village governance and paying attention to the differentiation of the farmers’ economy and occupation will improve the satisfaction of farmers’ life experiences.

The influence of asset specificity on farmers’ willingness to participate in fallow from the perspective of farmer differentiation

Fallow is an important institutional guarantee for green agricultural development and an important measure to promote rural revitalization. Asset specificity is a crucial factor that affects farmers’ willingness to participate in fallow. In order to improve farmers’ willingness of to fallow and promote the long-term promotion of fallow system, based on the perspective of farmer differentiation, a total of 1,240 micro survey data in four cities of Gansu province was used to quantify the asset specificity by the entropy method. A multivariate ordered Logit model and a double-hurdle model were established to explore the effects of asset specificity on the willingness of farmers with different degrees of differentiation. The results show that: 1) There are differences in fallow willingness among different types of farmers. The fallow willingness of non-farmers and II part-time farmers is generally stronger than that of pure farmers and I part-time farmers. 2) Geographical location specificity has a significant negative impact on the fallow willingness of the four types of non-fallow farmers, and has significant negative impacts on the subsequent fallow willingness and fallow degree of the four types of fallow farmers. 3) Physical asset specificity has a significant negative effect on the fallow willingness of pure farmers, I part-time and II part-time farmers among non-fallow farmers, but has little effect on the subsequent fallow willingness of fallow farmers. 4) Human capital specificity has a significant negative impact on the fallow willingness of the four types of non-fallow farmers, and has a significant negative impact on the subsequent fallow willingness and fallow degree of the four types of fallow farmers.