Abstract: The process to converse cultivated land to forest or grassland is intended to improve ecological environment and to increase earnings of farmers. The response of different farmers is related to the degree of soil and water conservation in a region. Taking Fengcheng County in jiangxi Province as an example, the paper built a model, named as data envelopment analysis (DEA) based on the questionnaire obtained from household farmers to evaluate farmer’s response to the introduction of this conversion policy. It is found that household farmers behavior in water and soil conservation is different from one area to another. The validity of DEA in three regions studied differed, being at 25.86％、24.14％、24.14％, with the major reasons identified as the non-agricultural earnings and the compensation of the introduction of this conversion policy. Shangzhuang town has the advantages in introducing this policy as it has a higher non-agricultural income. Several advices were proposed in this paper in order to better introduce this policy.

Key words: policy of cultivated land conversion for forest or grassland, farm household behavior of water and soil conservation, DEA, Fengcheng County