‘Get a Fish’ vs. ‘Get a Fishing Skill’: Farmers’ Preferred Compensation Methods to Control Agricultural Nonpoint Source Pollution

Ecological compensation is an important means for controlling agricultural nonpoint source pollution, and compensation methods comprise an essential part of the compensation policy for mitigating this form of pollution. Farmers’ choice of compensation methods affects their response to compensation policies as well as the effects of pollution control and ecological compensation efficiency. This study divides ecological compensation methods into two distinct philosophies—the “get a fish” method (GFM) and “get a fishing skill” method (GFSM)—based on policy objectives, to determine farmers’ choice between the two methods and the factors influencing this choice. Furthermore, by analyzing survey data of 632 farmers in the Ankang and Hanzhong cities in China and using the multivariate probit model, the study determines farmers’ preferred option among four specific compensation modes of GFM and GFSM. The three main results are as follows. (1) The probability of farmers choosing GFM is 82%, while that of choosing GFSM is 51%. Therefore, GFM should receive more attention in compensation policies relating to agricultural nonpoint source pollution control. (2) Of the four compensation modes, the study finds a substitution effect between farmers’ choice of capital and technology compensations, capital and project compensations, material and project compensations, while there is a complementary relationship between the choice of material and technology compensations. Therefore, when constructing the compensation policy basket, attention should be given to achieving an organic combination of different compensation methods. (3) Highly educated, young, and male farmers with lower part-time employment, large cultivated land, and a high level of eco-friendly technology adoption and policy understanding are more likely to choose GFSM. Hence, the government should prioritize promoting GFSM for farmers with these characteristics, thereby creating a demonstration effect to encourage transition from GFM to GFSM.

Regionalization of Agricultural Nonpoint Source Pollution over China with a Combination of Qualitative and Quantitative Method

Agricultural nonpoint source pollution has been a serious problem in China; however, currently a lack of basic data and quantitative analysis hinders control and reduction of agricultural nonpoint source pollution. Therefore, it is necessary to explore a regionalization method in the study of nationwide agricultural nonpoint source pollution over China. This paper proposes a method of combining both quantitative calculation and qualitative analysis. Based on agricultural nonpoint source pollution mechanism, we first proposed the natural environment index, which was calculated from relief degree of land surface, thermal humidity index, water resources quantity and precipitation index, and land cover index. Second, we proposed basic agricultural environment index, which was calculated based on the area of cultivated land use and the quality of integrated soil fertility. Third, we simplified the spatial distribution of natural environment and basic agricultural environment with the method of choropleth map classification, thematic map series, and gravity centers curve. Fourth, we conducted a qualitative analysis for both the natural environment and basic agricultural environment by overlaying the classification and existing regionalization maps to reveal the intra-region homogeneity and inter-region heterogeneity with a high reliability. The regionalization method used in this study resulted in a nationwide regional zoning of agricultural nonpoint source pollution over China, and China can be divided into 10 regions, which can be a trustworthy reference for agricultural nonpoint source pollution study and management.

Effect of Nanofertilizers and Biofertilizers on Yield of Maize: Biplot Analysis

One of the newest and most interesting fields of science is nanotechnology, which is exploiting many areas such as life sciences; however, its application in agriculture is rarely studied. In order to examine the environmentfriendly fertilizers (nano-sized and biological fertilizers), and control the agricultural nonpoint source pollution from the source, a field experiment was arranged to study the effects of bulk fertilizers (NPK, nitrogen biofertilizer, and phosphorus biofertilizer), nanofertilizers (nanoboron, nanozinc and nanocomplete) and no fertilizer treatment (control) on morphological traits of maize. The first two Principal Components (PCs) were used to create a biplot, which accounted for 72% of the variance of the treatment × trait interaction. The nanozinc fertilizers following nanoboron fertilizer were the best in most of the biological yield, seed yield, harvest index, and 100-grain weight. The vector-view biplot revealed a strong positive association between chlorophyll and protein content, seed yield with the number of kernels per ears and the number of rows per kernel. Nanocomplete fertilizer was the best treatment for chlorophyll content, protein percent and straw yield, while NPK did not high increase in the most traits of maize. This investigation indicated that treatment × trait biplot can graphically show the interrelationships among traits and facilitate visual comparison of fertilizers. In conclusion, it was found that zinc and boron nanofertilizers increased the production of most of the traits in maize. This study indicated that nano types of fertilizers could promote the studied traits in maize plant.