Increase or decrease? Impact of straw return on farmers’ agricultural income in Jianghan Plain, Central China

In the context of emphasizing on the food production, clean air guarding and sustainable development of agriculture, straw returning practices have been widely promoted, however, most studies have not linked straw returning adoption and smallholder's agricultural income in double-season rice cropping system. Based on a face-to-face survey data from 797 farmers in Jianghan Plain, Central China, we filled this gap by using the endogenous switching regression model to estimate the impact of farmer's straw returning on their agricultural income. The evidences show number of family laborers and technical training are the main factors influencing farmers' adoption of SR. After controlling for self-selection and unobservable bias, the adoption of straw return technology reduces the farmers' agricultural income by 10.16%. Finally, suggestions such as strengthening the straw returning supporting facility construction, enhancing the straw returning training system, and establishing straw returning adoption subsidy are highly recommended.