The influences of government behaviors on farmers’ willingness of straw resource utilization: From the perspectives of incentives and restrictions

The straw management situation in China needs urgent attention and the significance of the Government role in straw management cannot be neglected. Based on a survey data of farmers from Shandong and Hubei Provinces in 2016 and applying the Probit model, this paper analyzed the current management situations of crop straw resource utilization, explored farmers’ expectations and perceptions of crop straw resource utilization policies, and empirically tested the influences of government behaviors on farmers’ willingness of crop straw resource utilization. Results show that: currently, the straw resource utilization is not ideal, only accounting for 49.8%. The policies of financial incentives and other restrictions can encourage farmers to enhance utilization efficiency, with stronger influences from financial incentives than that from restrictions. In addition, the policies of financial incentives have not been effectively implemented and the restrictions, used as warning measures, have not been effectively promoted. Lastly, the influences of technology incentive policy is not very effective. In order to improve farmers’ willingness to transfer straw into resources and the performance of environmental governance of government, this paper provides the following suggestions: to strengthen the publicity and education for farmers of straw resource utilization, to establish and to perfect the supporting service system, to reward and to punish strictly, and to combine encouragement measures and prevention measures, with more focus on encouragement.