Innovative incentives can sustainably enhance the achievement of straw burning control in China

With the raising awareness of environmental protection, straw burning ban has been implemented to control straw burning phenomenon in China. It has received significant achievement by reducing the fire spots remarkably, but fire spots still cannot be eliminated in farmland. Although considerable papers and reviews on straw burning have been conducted, there is still a lack of comprehensive and systematic review of exploring the status, obstacles, implications, and motivations of this phenomenon, especially revealing the unique circumstance and experience in China. The review first summarizes the reasons as well as hazards of straw burning in China, and then explores the dilemma of straw burning ban in terms of farmers' endowments. And then, the review discusses the limitations of subsidy from financial expenditure and suggests two alternative innovative incentives: transferred payment from stakeholders and carbon trading. It is hoped that policy suggestion about straw burning and innovative incentives can enlighten researchers and policymakers who intend to implement straw burning ban effectively in the future. • Straw burning still exists in farmland while it is strictly controlled in China. • Dilemma of straw burning ban is caused by the divergence of the farmers' endowments. • Unilateral precaution of policy subsidy can't efficiently eliminate straw burning. • Transferred payment and carbon trading are innovative incentives for burning ban.