Farmers’ Satisfaction and its Influencing Factors in the Policy of Economic Compensation for Cultivated Land Protection: A Case Study in Chengdu, China

Abstract

With the rapid progress of urbanization, the loss of cultivated land has attracted great attention worldwide, and economic compensation is one of the incentives commonly used by the governments to enhance farmers’ enthusiasm in protecting cultivated land. In recent years, although various economic compensation modes have been implemented by the Chinese government, such modes are still experimental and exploratory. Thus, designing and implementing a national economic compensation mode is urgent to effectively protect the quantity and quality of cultivated land. This study focuses on the mode of cultivated land protection fund (CLPF) in Chengdu, which is the earliest mode of the implementation of economic compensation in China in 2008. First, we analyzed the farmers’ satisfaction with the CLPF through a face-to-face interview with 296 farmers in Chengdu. Then, we used the path analysis method to identify the influencing factors of farmers’ satisfaction from the characteristics of farmers and the policy. Results show that the CLPF was generally supported by farmers. Nevertheless, room for improvement still exists. Particularly, farmers’ satisfaction was low in the design of the government’s supervision management of the CLPF. Farmers’ satisfaction with compensation standard, funding use requirement, and the government’s supervision management were remarkably affected by factors, including farmers’ educational level, cultivated land area, total annual agricultural income, farmers’ knowledge of the CLPF, farmers’ recognition of the value of the CLPF, and farmers’ perception of the changes in household economics. Particularly, the direct influence of farmers’ perception of the changes in household economics was the most important. Finally, we proposed the recommendations for constructing a national economic compensation mode for cultivated land protection. Our results have certain guiding significance for promoting the sustainable development of cultivated land protection policies by means of economic incentives in China and other countries.

Sustainability of Traditional Rice Cultivation in Kerala, India—A Socio-Economic Analysis

“…Education, cultivated area [77], years of experience and mobility (access to transport) were the factors responsible for maximizing the farmers' satisfaction, i.e., in the second tier.…”

Drivers of farmers’ behavior toward compensation scheme for cultivated land protection in chengdu pilot area, China

“…Capitanio et al (2011) also suggested that an increase in the extent of family labor on a farm would have an adverse effect on a peasant farmers participation in cultivated land protection programs. Furthermore, farmers' attitudes (Ruto and Garrod, 2009; Barreiro-Hurlé et al, 2010), information available regarding the policy (Wilson and Hart, 2000), and farmers' satisfaction (Xiao et al, 2019) might affect farmers' overall participation. Hence, it is of great significance to discuss farmers' behavior and its driving factors, which may have a direct impact on the extent of farmers' participation in cultivated land protection .…”

“…Recently, 17 provincial governments in China expressed an interest in operating such schemes (Zhu et al, 2018). Through the analysis of satisfaction, Xiao et al (2019) found that farmers' satisfaction with the cultivated land protection fund was not very high on the whole. Based on the comparison of the three compensation models in Chengdu, Wuhan and Suzhou, Zhu et al (2018) proved that the implementation effect of the Chengdu model with pension insurance as the highlight was the best.…”

Evolutionary Game and Numerical Simulation of Cultivated Land Protection Policies Implementation in China

“…Scholars have conducted extensive research on improving the implementation of CLPP, mainly focusing on the influence of factors, such as individual or family characteristics of farmers, livelihood capital, degree of concurrent employment, interest statement, consciousness differentiation, cognitive level, and satisfaction degree on the implementation of CLPP [16][17][18]. Some scholars have also researched institutional changes, regional differences, and nonmarket value [19,20].…”