Farmers' preferences for sustainable farmland construction — Insights from a discrete choice experiment in China

Sustainable farmland construction (SFC) is a priority development strategy used to address the integrated goals of "efficiency output, resource conservation, and environmental friendliness" in agricultural systems. Introducing farmer participation to optimize SFC institutions can improve farmland construction efficiency and address limited construction funding. This study analyzed farmer preferences for participating in SFC through a discrete choice experiment survey of farmers in the project area. This study also evaluated farmers' willingness to pay for different SFC schemes. The findings indicate that farmers prefer constructing mechanized production roads (MPR), leveling farmland and transforming the contiguous farmland (LF and CF), integrated irrigation and fertilizer facilities (IIFF), and moderate improvement in ecological protection facilities. On the basis of the heterogeneity of the farmer preferences, they can be classified as benefits-driven and ecology-driven. In addition, factors such as age, educational level, risk proneness, land transfer, and cultivated land quality can influence the classification of farmer preferences. Farmers' willingness to pay for MPR, LF and CF, ED, IIFF, and moderate improvement in ecological facilities has reached 50–80 % of construction costs, essentially bridging the investment gap under the SF standards set by the central government. Based on the aforementioned, SFC schemes should be designed to consider farmers' needs and regional development requirements. Allocating SF construction costs according to farmers' willingness to pay for various facilities, formulating diverse investment ratios, and forming a coherent government-farmer cooperation mode are recommended. This study introduces policy tools to establish a farmers' participation mechanism in farmland construction, offering valuable insights into institutional reforms in land consolidation projects across other developing countries.