Abstract:
In order to investigate the application and recovery of plastic mulching film among farmers in central and eastern Gansu Province and its main influencing factors, we used mobile phone to carry out a questionnaire survey from March 26 to April 1, 2019. In the questionnaire, mulching area, recovery method, purchasing ways and et al were required to fill out. A total of 769 valid questionnaires were collected. The included areas were 11 counties (districts) in the central and eastern of Gansu province: Yongdeng, Kangle, Linxia, Heshui, Huachi, Huanxian, Ningxian, Qingcheng, Xifeng, Zhenyuan and Zhengning county. The main contents of the survey included: 1) access to plastic mulching film; 2) planting crops and mulching; 3) plastic mulching film recovery and treatment methods; 4) the rate of recycling mulching film. The results showed that the total planting area was 588 hm2 and the main crops were maize, wheat, vegetables, potatoes, and so on. The mulching area of these crops accounted for 73.2% of planting area. In this survey, 99.3% of farmers adopted film mulching technology for maize, and 28.5%, 77.1%, 57.9% and 52.1% for wheat, vegetables, potatoes and other crops, respectively. In the central and eastern Gansu Province, 89.3% of farmers in this survey recycled mulching film by artificial picking up. Of the farmers who recycled the residual film, 47.7% gave it to the recycling networks, 28.3% burned it in the field, 13.8% piled it up in the field, 7.9% disposed it by landfill, and 2.2% adopted the other methods to treat the residual film. The mulching film recovery rates of the surveyed crops were all above 80.0%, among which the vegetable was up to 99.3%. When the leaving field rate of mulching film was 80% and 90%, the recovery rate of mulching film in vegetables was the best, reached to 79.4% and 89.4% in 2018, respectively. To sum up, there were 4 main problems of plastic mulching film recycling process: 1) the non-standard and non-recyclability of plastic mulching film; 2) backward recovery method and weak degree of mechanization; 3) difficult to dispose after plastic film recovery, and easy to cause secondary pollution; 4) limited government support and low enthusiasm of farmers. The government and relevant departments should strengthen the publicity and implementation of the new national standards of plastic film, improve the mechanization degree of plastic mulching film recycling. Thus, promoting the recycling and resource utilization of agricultural film, and providing data support for the rational application of plastic film and the prevention and control of agricultural film pollution. In addition, mobile phone survey of plastic mulching film application and recycling system can quickly and effectively obtain primary data, and is an effective and rapid acquisition method of basic data of plastic film application recycling in China in the future.