Perceived Value, Environmental Regulation, and Farmers' Cultivated Land Quality Protection Practices

ABSTRACT Promoting farmers to implement cultivated land quality protection practices is an effective strategy for combating soil degradation in cultivated land. Based on 528 survey data, perceived value and environmental regulation are hereby introduced into the model of farmers' cultivated land quality protection practical decision‐making for the first time, and the Multivariate Probit model and Tobit model are employed to examine the influence of perceived value and environmental regulation on farmers' cultivated land quality protection practices. The results show that: firstly, perceived value and environmental regulation enhance the intensity of farmers' cultivated land quality protection practices, with perceived benefits (0.048) and incentive regulation (0.052) having a more pronounced effect. Secondly, incentive regulation facilitates to improve the practice intensity of farmers with a higher perceived value level, while guiding regulation contributes to improving the practice intensity of farmers with a lower level of perceived risks. Thirdly, the practice intensity of the old generation is mainly influenced by perceived benefits (0.056) and incentive regulation (0.062), while the new generation is primarily influenced by perceived risks (0.039) and guiding regulation (0.061). Therefore, the government should consider the overall effects of perceived value and environmental regulation on farmers in promoting practices for cultivated land quality protection.