Sustainable Management Behavior of Farmland Shelterbelt of Farmers in Ecologically Fragile Areas: Empirical Evidence from Xinjiang, China

Pengfei Cheng, Jie Li (), Hongli Zhang and Guanghua Cheng ()
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Pengfei Cheng: School of Economics and Management, China Agriculture University, Beijing 100083, China
Jie Li: School of Economics and Management, China Agriculture University, Beijing 100083, China
Hongli Zhang: School of Economics and Management, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832000, China
Guanghua Cheng: School of Economics and Management, Huainan Normal University, Huainan 232038, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 3, 1-16

Abstract: The farmland shelterbelt is an important artificial ecological project for improving farmland microclimates, ensuring agricultural production, and promoting sustainable development in China’s ecologically fragile areas. Due to the quasi-public attribute, farmland shelterbelts were mainly constructed and managed by the government in the past. In recent years, the reform of the separation of three rights in collective forestland and the mechanism of “private supply of public goods” have prompted farmers to participate in the modern forest management system. However, there is a lack of consistency between farmers’ management intentions and actual contract operation and management behaviors, resulting in weakened management and protection in many places, which seriously restricts the construction efficiency of farmland shelterbelts. Therefore, based on the survey data and planning behavior theory (TPB) of 1106 farmers in 16 major agricultural production areas (counties) in Xinjiang, this study aims to explore the key factors affecting farmers ‘forestry management and production decision making and to verify the transformation mechanism of farmers’ behavior through path analysis. The results show that the management decisions of farmers in ecologically fragile areas follow the path form of “cognitive → intention → behavior”, in which the multi-dimensional cognition of farmers has a significant impact on farmers’ behavioral intention, while the effect on behavioral response is relatively small, which currently depends on the promotion of ecological compensation and government behavior. Finally, this study puts forward countermeasures and suggestions for continuously stimulating the farmers’ forest operation behavior and provides policy reference for promoting the sustainable development of farmland shelterbelts in ecologically fragile areas put forward countermeasures and suggestions for continuously stimulating farmers’ forestry behavior.

Keywords: farmland shelterbelt; farmer; double hurdle model; path analysis; ecologically fragile area (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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