Abstract: Farmers are both builders and beneficiaries of the rural living environment. Their active participation and initiative are great guarantors of successfully promoting the improvement of the rural living environment. Based on the theory of perceived value and stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model, the theoretical analysis framework of farmers' willingness to participate in rural habitat improvement was constructed from the angles of both social capital and perceived value. The empirical test was carried out through farm household research data in Jiangxi Province. The results showed that: (1) Social network, social trust and social norms had a significant positive effect on the willingness of farmers to participate in the improvement of rural human settlements, with the social network effect being the largest. Functional value, emotional value and cognitive value all had a significant positive effect on the willingness of farmers to participate in the improvement of rural habitat, with functional value obtaining maximum effect. (2) Social network significantly affected the level of functional, emotional, and perceived value. It was shown that social network was the most critical factor influencing farmers' perceived value. (3) Perceived value played a partly intermediary role in the influence of social capital on farmers' willingness to participate in rural habitat improvement. On these grounds, in the process of promoting the improvement of rural human settlements, it is necessary to make great efforts to cultivate the social capital of rural households and to raise the level of their perceived value of the improvement of rural living environment governance, so as to increase the motivation of farmers to participate in the improvement of rural human settlements.