Farmers' willingness to leave land fallow from the perspective of heterogeneity: A case-study in ecologically vulnerable areas of Guizhou, China

Land fallow policy is an important measure for improving cultivated land protection. There is a lack of heterogeneous farmers' willingness to fallow, although scholars have done a lot of researches on the fallow farmers. Therefore, this research based on farmer classification and field research, a questionnaire survey, and PROBIT model was adopted to analyze farmers' willingness to fallow and the influence this has in a rocky desertification fallow area of Guizhou Province, China. The results show that the willingness to fallow and its influencing factors differ among heterogeneous farmers. The amount of fallow compensation and project satisfaction are the common influencing factors affecting heterogeneous farmers' willingness to fallow. In addition, farmers' willingness to fallow is influenced by education level and their understanding of the fallow project, among other factors. Part-time farmers' willingness is affected by age, gender, and compensation satisfaction, among other factors, and off-farmers' willingness to fallow is mainly influenced by nonagricultural income level. Based on the results, the following policy recommendations are proposed. The Government should adopt different fallow policies for heterogeneous farmers and formulate corresponding subsidy policies according to local conditions. Furthermore, detailed follow-up policies should be formulated as soon as possible to ensure the sustainability and effectiveness of fallow projects.