An Analysis on Influential Factors of Farmers- Intention to Participate in Contract-Farming: An Empirical Analysis Based on the Research Data from 21 Villages in 5 Apple Production Counties in Shanxi Province

This paper adopts the Logit model to measure the influential factors of apple growers- intention to participate in contract-farming. The research shows that there is a positive correlation between contract-farming participation and the following factors: the acreage of orchard, quantity of family labor force, whether they have joined in the economic cooperation, whether they have bought fake pesticides in the last three years, unmarketable in 2007 and times that purchasers break the rule. There is a negative correlation between contract-farming participation and other factors, such as average age of trees in the orchard, whether or not there are family members undertaking non-agricultural professions, encountering severe natural disasters in the last three years and the proportion of apple-selling earning in the whole family income. Besides, there is regional difference in the intention to participate in contract-farming of apple growers.