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Journal of Integrative Agriculture  2019, Vol. 18 Issue (6): 1402-1414    DOI: 10.1016/S2095-3119(19)62687-0
Agricultural Economics and Management Advanced Online Publication | Current Issue | Archive | Adv Search |
Do farmers care about climate change? Evidence from five major grain producing areas of China
SONG Chun-xiao1, LIU Rui-feng1, Les Oxley2, MA Heng-yun
 
1 College of Economics and Management, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450002, P.R.China
2 Department of Economics and Finance, University of Waikato, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand
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Abstract  
Using a logistic model, this paper empirically investigated farmers’ perception of climate change and its determinants based on a field survey of 1 350 rural households across five major grain producing provinces in China.  The results show: i) There is an apparent difference in perception levels for long-term temperature and precipitation changes.  Specifically, 57.4% of farmers perceived the long-term temperature change correctly, but only 29.7% of farmers perceived the long-term precipitation change correctly; ii) The factors influencing the farmers’ perceptions are almost completely different between precipitation and temperature, the former are mostly agriculture related, while latter are mostly non-agriculture related, except for farm size; and iii) Farmers are not expected to pay more attention to long-term precipitation changes over the crop growing seasons, because less than 30% of farmers can correctly perceive long-term precipitation change.  Therefore, to improve the accuracy of farmers’ perceptions of climate change, the government is recommended to: i) enhance education and training programs; ii) speed up land transfer and expand household land farm size; iii) develop farmer cooperative organizations; iv) invest more in agricultural infrastructure, specifically in major grain producing regions; and v) improve the agricultural environment and increase farming income.
Keywords:  China       major grain producing areas       determinants        climate change perception       irrigation areas  
Received: 08 September 2018   Accepted:
Fund: This study was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China (14BGL093), the International Development Research Center (107093-001), the Specialized Research Fund for the Jointed Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (20124105110006), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71403082), the 2017 Annual Scientific and Technological Innovation of Henan Province Talent (Humanities and Social Sciences) Support Program, China (2017-cxrc-002), the Young Backbone Teachers Scheme of Henan Colleges and Universities, China (2015GGJS-085), and the Henan Province Philosophy and Social Science Planning Project, China (2017BJJ033).
Corresponding Authors:  Correspondence MA Heng-yun, Tel: +86-371-56990018, Fax: +86-371-56990014, E-mail: h.y.ma@163.com   
About author:  SONG Chun-xiao, E-mail: scx2011aqr@163.com;

Cite this article: 

SONG Chun-xiao, LIU Rui-feng, Les Oxley, MA Heng-yun. 2019. Do farmers care about climate change? Evidence from five major grain producing areas of China. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 18(6): 1402-1414.

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