Quantitative analysis of farmer attitude towards water-saving plantingstructure adjustment: A case study of Heihe River middle reaches

To ensure smooth implementation of water-saving planting structure adjustment, countermeasures were proposed by analyzing farmer attitude toward it. It was important for increasing crop water use efficiency, ensuring food security and agricultural development in water deficient districts. Based on survey data (by questionnaire and household interviews) of 200 farmers in 3 irri-gation districts in the middle reaches of Heihe River Basin, the Enter and Backward conditional methods of Logistic Regression were used to analyze the factors affecting farmer attitude towards crop planning structure adjustment. The results indicated that education, ratio of labor force, arable land area, commercialization degree, government participation and water-saving consciousness were posi-tively related with planting structure adjustment adoption. Also farmer age, previous season crop number, commercialization degree and risk consciousness were negatively related with planting structure adjustment adoption. Based on above analysis, key factors of supportive ratios of planting structure adjustment were sequenced in order of importance as: age > government participation > wa-ter-saving consciousness > commercialization degree > education > arable land area. Among these factors, age and government partici-pation were most critical, with significant levels of 0.002 and 0.044, respectively. Also a probability equation between five key factors and supportive ratios was developed. The regression results showed that the goodness of fit between model and observed values was 78%, suggesting a good regression relation. Finally, several countermeasures were put forward to boost implementation of wa-ter-saving planting structure adjustment with model-simulated ones. They were reinforced propaganda trainings and investments in sci-ence and technology, strengthening economic compensations and farmer benefits, and emphasizing government guidance.