Effect of Farmland Scale on Farmers' Application Behavior with Organic Fertilizer.

Abstract

The application of organic fertilizer is an important measure for improving the quality of agricultural products and realizing the sustainable development of agriculture. The original small-scale family business model in China is no longer suitable for the development of modern agriculture. Large-scale agricultural business has become the mainstream trend, accompanied by the increasingly active land-transfer market. It is, therefore, necessary to determine whether farmland scale influences farmers’ organic fertilizer applications in China. Based on the analysis of the influence mechanism of farmland scale on farmers’ organic fertilizer application behaviors, empirical tests were conducted using survey data from 812 citrus farmers in Sichuan Province, China. The results show that the large-scale farmers are more likely to apply organic fertilizer and increase the application intensity than small-scale farmers and that the heterogeneity of farmers also affect their organic fertilizer application behavior. The results suggest that the government should encourage farmers to conduct moderate-scale management and promote their application behavior with organic fertilizer by improving awareness, strengthening education and training, and providing financial support.