Farmer's Crop Straw Utilizing Activities:A Case Study of Corn Straw Utilization in Zhangye City,Gansu Province

As a kind of source of renewable bioenergy, the crop straw is of incalculable economic value. In agricultural production, lots of crop straw are abandoned and burned, which would pollute rural environment, and damage rural public goods in the same time. Based on the field survey with questionnaire, this article studies farmer's corn straw utilizing activities in Zhangye City, Gansu Province, and explores the factors affecting these activities. The study shows that the farmers' individual characteristics, their family, as well as the extent to which the farmers are aware of the usage of straw, the governmental policy and policy support, etc., all exert very important impacts on the utilization of straw. Therefore, the key to turn the straw into resources would be to upgrade farmer's perception on the utilization of the crop straw. In addition, a sound policy orientation and support also is an important approach to improve farmer's crop straw utilizing activities.