Farmers' willingness to accept compensation for livestock and poultry waste resource utilization and its determinants

Ecological compensation is widely considered a policy that encourages farmers to recycle livestock and poultry waste for economic and ecological benefits. Therefore, based on field data from 30 counties (districts) in six cities of Shandong Province, China, this study systematically analyzes farmers' willingness to accept compensation for livestock and poultry waste resource utilization as well as its determinants. It does so using the UTAUT theoretical analysis framework, as well as the contingent valuation method and Heckman two-stage selection model. The results show that, first, 72.4% of the farmers in the sample are willing to accept a certain amount of compensation-the expected value of which is RMB 98.02 per month per household-as an incentive to utilize livestock waste. Second, the key determinants of farmers' willingness to accept compensation are marital status, family annual income, concurrent business, farming scale, economic performance expectation, social performance expectation, knowledge reserve, public relations, and technical convenience. Finally, the factors that affect farmers' willingness in terms of the compensation amount are gender, age, family annual income, social performance expectation, subjective norms, and public relations. Therefore, to promote the recycling of livestock and poultry waste, this study proposes policies that promote education and technology popularization in relation to livestock and poultry waste resource utilization, provide subsidies for waste recycling, and strengthen government control and social supervision over the non-standard disposal of such waste.