Farmers’ Heterogeneous Willingness to Pay for Farmland Non-Market Goods and Services on the Basis of a Mixed Logit Model—A Case Study of Wuhan, China

Abstract

The exploration of different stakeholders’ heterogeneous willingness to pay for farmland ecological value is a fundamental part of understanding the total value of farmland protection and designing a scientific farmland protection policy. Unlike the homogenous assumption used in the previous studies, the mixed logit model of choice experiment method was applied to estimate respondents’ heterogeneous willingness to pay for farmland non-market value (represented by farmland area, farmland fertility, water quality, air quality, species richness, and recreational value) in this study. Data came from a sample of 289 farmers in Wuhan, China who were face-to-face interviewed. Results showed that: (1) Farmers were unsatisfied with the status quo of the present farmland ecological environment and were willing to pay to preserve all the attributes of farmland non-market value. (2) Farmers had a heterogeneous preference for the status quo and recreational value—the error variances of these two attributes were both significant at the 1% level, and their willingness to pay for the farmland non-market value in Wuhan was 1141.88 Yuan/hm2. (3) Farmers’ cognition degree of farmland importance and whether respondents bought medical insurance or not had significant impacts on their willingness to pay. The results can provide the basic foundation for accurate valuation of farmland non-market services, help farmland regulators make the right farmland conversion decisions, and improve the resource allocation efficiency of local financial expenditure during farmland protection in Wuhan.

Farmers’ Willingness to Pay for Services to Ensure Sustainable Agricultural Income in the GAP-Harran Plain, Şanlıurfa, Turkey

“…Similar results were obtained for another study conducted in the same region for an income of sustainable farming [24]. In a study conducted in Wuhan, China, it was found that farmland and productivity effectively affect farmers' WTP to protect agricultural lands for sustainable income [23]. A study in Taiwan found that one of the most effective factors that affect WTP for safe agricultural production is the acreage of farmland [27].…”

“…In a study conducted in Wuhan, China, it was determined that farmers are not satisfied with the ecological environment of existing agricultural lands, which affects sustainability, and that they express a WTP to protect agricultural lands. The research proposed the importance and necessity of factoring in WTP in policies on the protection of agricultural land for an income of sustainable farming [23].…”

Ecological Benefit Spillover and Ecological Financial Transfer of Cultivated Land Protection in River Basins: A Case Study of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China

“…In recent years, scholars have discussed the calculation of both the ecological benefits and ecological compensation for cultivated land in different theoretical perspectives. For example, based on the non-market value theory, the contingent valuation method and the choice experiment method are used to calculate the willingness of citizens to pay for the ecological landscape of cultivated land under different scenarios [3][4][5], as well as willingness of farmers to be compensated for the protection of cultivated land [6,7]. From this, we can determine the ecological benefits of cultivated land protection on a micro scale [8][9][10].…”

“…This also provides ideas for calculating the ecological benefits of cultivated land. Based on the perspective of land development rights, the unfair loss of regional development caused by differences in the protection responsibilities of cultivated land is also an important basis for calculating the ecological benefits of cultivated land [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. The Zhejiang [16] and Chongqing models [17] are typical practices for combining government and market objectives.…”

Research on compensation standards for cultivated land protection based on a value-added benefit model in Xinjiang, China

“…At present, there is no unified standard for measuring the value-added benefits of converting farmland to construction land. Scholars have measured the value-added benefits of converting farmland to construction land from the perspectives of future value-added returns of farmland (Zhang et al, 2008), the value of similar property rights with the same value components in the modified market (Wen et al, 2021), factors affecting value-added benefits (Liu et al, 2020), and willingness to pay (Yang et al, 2019;Peng et al, 2021;Hu et al, 2022). These measurement methods are either complex or difficult to operate.…”