Effects of land transfer quality on the application of organic fertilizer by large-scale farmers in China

Abstract

The application of organic fertilizer is conducive to improving the quality of cultivated land. Previous studies suggest that the small scale of operation is the key factor restricting the application of organic fertilizer in China. However, the application of organic fertilizer has not increased alongside the increase in the scale of agricultural land management in China which is associated with an increasingly active land transfer market (i.e. farmers renting their farmland to and from other farmers). It is therefore necessary to determine the key factors restricting the application of organic fertilizer by large-scale farmers in China. A survey was conducted of large-scale grain-growing households (with managed lands of at least 3.33 ha) from Anhui Province in the east of China. The study aimed to test the effect of land transfer quality on the application of organic fertilizer by large-scale farmers. The ‘quality of transferred lands’ incorporates the level of fragmentation of transferred lands and the stability of transferred land management rights. Probit and Tobit models were used as a benchmark, the IV-Probit model and IV-Tobit model were used to eliminate the endogeneity, and the Heckman two-stage model was used for further empirical tests. The results show that the ratio of the crop planting area where organic fertilizer was applied to the total crop planting area was only 22 %, indicating that large-scale farmers are not commonly applying organic fertilizer. The average area of transferred plots of land and the land lease term have significant positive effects on the probability and intensity of large-scale grain-growing households applying organic fertilizer. The number of transferred plots of land and land transfer contracts being broken during the lease term have significant negative effects on the probability and intensity of large-scale grain-growing households applying organic fertilizer. It can be concluded that the key to encouraging large-scale farmers to apply organic fertilizer is to increase the quality of land transfers, including a realization of contiguous land transfers and improving the stability of transferred land management rights.