In the following illustration are the answers from the eight interviewed farmers summarized to capture the most notable trends and facilitate the following analysis, see table four.
4.2.1Overview of farmers answers
Theoretical relation Initiation The Innovation Aspects The Environmental Aspects
The main problems in the crop production is:
• Good in terms of drought and erosion
• Less time consuming than the plough
• Good for the biological activity in the soil
• Increasing the yield and is more reliable
• Easy to use and understand
• Less effective towards the maize stock compared with the plough
• Suppliers and the government support the practice.
• The bank enables loan for machinery purchase
• No problem to introduce the practice, as enough
The main issues in the crop production is:
• Is effective towards erosion
• Saves time
• Is easy to use
• Has increased the issues with weeds
• The machinery are expensive
• Suppliers and the government are positive towards the practice.
• The bank enables loan.
• Farmers in the area are used to the plough, but are starting to use and value minimum tillage.
• The practice was easy to implement, enough knowledge existed in the organisation.
• Offered classes to the drivers
Table 4.Summary of the empirical data. (own arrangement)
39
The main problems in the crop production is:
• Easy to use and understand
• Keeps the soil moisture
• Keeps the nutrition in the soil
• Has increased the productivity
• The government and suppliers encourage the use of minimum tillage
• Farmers in the area find the practice better then other alternatives
• The bank enables loan
• The practice was easy to implement, enough knowledge existed.
• Tractors and machinery was bought at the same time. Do not use minimum tillage
The main problems in the crop production is:
• Drought
• Erosion
Minimum tillage:
• Machinery is too expensive
• Saves time and reduce erosion
• Reduces the yield"
• The government supports the practice.
• Suppliers don't provide minimum tillage machinery
• The banks don't enable loans on machinery purchase
• Farmers in the area find the practice expensive and not profitable
• The organisation is not united enough to purchase minimum tillage
machinery
• The practice could be used if funds was available
Farmer 5 Inner Mongolia Age: 60
Education: Elementary school ad three years at agricultural university Title: Farm owner Farm size: 500ha
Do not use minimum tillage
The main problems in the crop production is:
• Increases the amount of weed
• Increases the input costs and reduces the yield
• Doesn’t aerate the soil enough
• Saves time
• Can be used but is not beneficial
• The government support the practice.
• There are no obstacles in the organisation to
Do not use minimum tillage
The main problems in the crop production is:
• Issues with weeds increase with the practice
• Is not that reliable as traditional farming systems
• The plough is always more beneficial
• The machinery is to expensive
• The government support the practice.
Do not use minimum tillage
The main problems in the crop production is:
• Drought
• Hard soil
• Weeds
Minimum tillage is not possible to use because:
• The soil is to hard and need to be aerated with a plough.
• The clay in the soil degrades the result of the practice.
• Issues with weeds increase with the practice.
• The yield is to low
• It leaves too much biomass on the surface after growing maize.
• The government support the practice.
• The knowledge about the practice is in general low.
If the practice was beneficial it would not be any problems to
Do not use minimum tillage
The main problems in the crop production is:
• Drought
• Weeds and insects
Minimum tillage do not work on his farm because:
• It doesn’t turn down the stubble enough.
• It don't turn up the nutrition in the soil
• It increase the amount of weed Which decrease the yield
• The government support the practice.
• Some suppliers may provide minimum tillage machinery, but no one promotes it.
• The farmers in the area don't like the practice and don't use it.
There are no problems to implement the practice in the organisation.
40
4.2.2 Summary interviews Farmers
In this chapter a summary of the empirical result will be presented to highlight the most important data from the interviews. The farmers’ opinion of minimum tillage are based on the four different aspects; initiation, innovation- , environmental- and organisational aspects and these are linked to the hypotheses presented earlier. These four aspects have been graded on a scale from one to five, where five is very good and one is not good. The farmers have been able to rate minimum tillage within these aspects. The result of this measurement can be observed in the following graph, see figure five.
Figure 5. The graph summarizes the farmers’ opinion of minimum tillage. Each farmer has rated the practice on a scale from 1 to 5, with focus on the four different aspect presented earlier. Own arrangement
The graph reveals that there tends to be a difference between the farmers in the two areas in terms of opinion of minimum tillage. The farmers in Heilongjiang found minimum tillage to be the solution to the existing problems in the crop production to a high extent, which can be observed in the initiation sector in the graph. The Heilongjiang farmers also found the practice beneficial in terms of innovation aspects, which include economic and biological factors, compatibility and relative advantage in relation to other alternatives. These farmers also found the practice suitable in their organisations and perceived a positive view of the practice in the surrounding environment. A generally positive opinion among the interviewed farmers in Heilongjiang towards minimum tillage can therefore be stated.
In Inner Mongolia the graph reveals that the farmers do not perceive minimum tillage to be the solution to existing problems in the crop production as the initiation staple is low. In terms of the innovation aspects the farmers did not find minimum tillage to be advantageous,
instead was it perceived to be less beneficial than other alternatives. The graph also reveals that the Inner Mongolian farmers perceive a negative view of minimum tillage in the
environment among, for example neighbours and suppliers. The only section with a tendency of a more positive opinion among the Inner Mongolian farmers is the organisational aspects where the bars are noticeably higher compared to the other aspects. This implies that these
4 4 4
1 2 2 3 1
5 4 5
2 2 2 2
1
5 4 4
2 1 1 1
1
4 5 4
2 4 4 3
3 0 2
4 6 10 8 12 14 16 18 20
Farmers´ opinions
The organisational aspects The Environmental aspects The Innovation aspects Initiation
41
farmers do not find minimum tillage difficult to implement in their current organisation structure. Despite this, a general negative opinion of minimum tillage among the interviewed farmers in Inner Mongolia can be stated.