How Does Part-Time Farming Affect Farmers’ Adoption of Conservation Agriculture in Jianghan Plain, China?

Abstract

Part-time farming has been suggested by scholars to play an important part in farmers’ decision making, but seldom empirical evidence has been done on the field of conservation agriculture (CA) technology adoption worldwide. Based on the field survey data of 433 farmers in Jianghan Plain, China, this paper estimate the impact of part-time farming on farmers’ adoption of CA technology by applying the multivariate logistic model. The results show that 91.92% of the farmers adopted CA technology. Part-time farming had a highly significant positive influence on the likelihood of adoption. Moreover, the impact degree increased along with the deepening of part-time farming. In addition, farmers’ adoption behaviors were affected by gender, contracted land area, economic welfare cognition and social welfare cognition. Our results help to understand farmers’ complex decision-making on farmland and to promote the sustainable development of agriculture in Jianghan Plain. A somewhat targeted approach to design policies to support technological, policy and institutional interventions to encourage farmers to engage in part-time farming are recommended, especially in areas that share similar edaphic and climatic characteristics with Jianghan Plain.

Uptake of conservation agriculture technology through farmer field schools in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique

“…Although farmers in Angonia County practice CA techniques at all times, they do apply these techniques to only ¼ of their fields, mainly because of a lack of economic resources for CA inputs such as herbicides. Yang & Sang, (2020) have also observed that poorresource farmers restrict the adoption of CA technology because of economic conditions. Farmers may also refuse to adopt certain aspects of technology due to a lack of labour, a lack of land on which to implement the technology, an uneasy technology operation or a lack of better approach to communicating the three principles of CA to farmers.…”

Building network for innovation and proximity in local development; sustainable farming initiatives in Izmir

“…However, according to Czyzewski et al (2021), the more crucial the traditional production factors are, the more crucial the human factor is for the adoption of innovation. Although the role of the human factor is relatively less analysed in agricultural studies than economic factors, there are fruitful studies on the effects of socio-demographic characteristics such as age, gender, education level and income level (Alam et al, 2010;Mwangi & Kariuki, 2015;Ntshangase et al, 2018;Yang & Sang, 2020) on adoption behaviour. For example, according to Czyzewski et al (2021), human capital, conceptualised in relation to abilities and skills and whose driving forces are education and training, plays a significant role in farmers' adoption behaviour by improving their decision-making capacity.…”

“…(2021), the more crucial the traditional production factors are, the more crucial the human factor is for the adoption of innovation. Although the role of the human factor is relatively less analysed in agricultural studies than economic factors, there are fruitful studies on the effects of socio‐demographic characteristics such as age, gender, education level and income level (Alam et al., 2010; Mwangi & Kariuki, 2015; Ntshangase et al., 2018; Yang & Sang, 2020) on adoption behaviour. For example, according to Czyzewski et al.…”

Smallholders’ Agricultural Production Efficiency of Conservation Tillage in Jianghan Plain, China—Based on a Three-Stage DEA Model

“…They have a large rice planting area, superior water conservancy conditions, and good conditions for agricultural development. Agricultural science and technology demonstration farms that used pesticide control techniques and deep tillage are vigorously constructed in Yicheng, with one of the largest parks taking up approximately 80 hm 2 , in which the use of fertilizer decreased by 10% annually during 2017-2019 [25].Jingshan is the birthplace of Chinese farming culture and unique production bases of high-quality rice (named as Guo Bao Qiao Mi). Straw returning to field, no-till, and less-tillage are the three main conservation tillage types applied in Jingshan County.…”