Impacts of cultivated land protection practices on farmers' welfare: A dual quality and ecology perspective

Given the vital role of the quantity, quality, and ecology of cultivated lands in ensuring food security, climate resilience, and biodiversity conservation, cultivated land protection practices (CLPPs) have been applied to many regions across the world. However, the expansion of such practices faces challenges due to unknown welfare effects on the local population. This study uses data in a panel multinomial endogenous switching model at the plot level to estimate the heterogeneous impacts of different combinations of CLPPs on farmers' comprehensive welfare. Besides revealing factors influencing the adoption of CLPPs, results show that the welfare of farmers who adopted practices conducive to cultivated land quality improvement (CQI) and cultivated land ecological protection (CEP) significantly increased, by 9.59 % and 11.47 %, respectively. The welfare of joint adopters engaged in both practices (CQI & CEP) increased by 23.89 %, which was significantly higher than the other two individual practices. After a specific cost-benefit analysis, the results revealed that CQI adopters and joint adopters attained positive economic profits, while CEP adopters incurred economic losses. A combination of these two practices emerged as the optimal choice for maximizing the welfare of farmers compared with adopting each of the CQI and CEP practices in isolation. Furthermore, these welfare effects vary with such factors as technology training, assets, cooperative members, and plot size. The work is expected to contribute to evidence-based policymaking about CLPPs promotion and sustainable use of cultivated lands.