Abstract
Improving fertilizer use efficiency (FUE) is an effective means to reduce fertilizer use and environmental contamination. Few studies have considered the spatial effects of FUE and its determinants. This paper calculated the FUE of agricultural production by adopting panel data on 31 provinces in China from 2007 to 2017 using a stochastic frontier method with a heteroscedastic inefficiency term, and discussed the spatial characteristics. Further, the geographical weighted regression model (GWR) was employed to examine the spatial impact of factors on FUE and revealed the spatial dispersion and agglomeration effect. The results show that averaged FUE in China was 0.722, and had a significantly decreasing trend with a significant regional difference and spatial positive correlation in different provinces. The non-agricultural employment ratio was the leading factor for increasing FUE, and its degree of influence showed a decreasing trend from eastern to western China. The different agricultural industry development modes, crop planting patterns adjustment, labor transfer, and policy incentive systems for increasing the non-agricultural employment ratio should be developed for different regions. Farmers’ income had a negative impact on FUE, but the influence degree decreased annually. Education level had a negative impact on FUE and was relatively weak, but the influence degree was increasing. This should strengthen the exploration of a scientific and practical technical training system for farmers on fertilizer use while improving educational levels in different regions on the basis of local characteristics. The impact of disasters on FUE depended on their severity, and a combined weather and disaster forecasting mechanism should be developed.
Highlights
Chemical fertilizer is a crucial input for crop production, and has made a substantial contribution to grain yields, especially in China, where chemical fertilizer has contributed to 56.81% of the increase in grain yield [1,2]
This result is similar to Wang et al [49], who indicated that the average fertilizer use efficiency (FUE) of agricultural production was 0.731 from 1998 to 2012 in China
FUE indicates that the fertilizer input in agriculture production in China can be decreased by 27.8% to maintain the agricultural output value with current production technologies and other inputs, and shows great potential for improved FUE and reductions in fertilizer use in China
Summary
Chemical fertilizer is a crucial input for crop production, and has made a substantial contribution to grain yields, especially in China, where chemical fertilizer has contributed to 56.81% of the increase in grain yield [1,2]. Increasing fertilizer use has weakened the marginal effect of the increasing yield [3], and overuse has resulted in low fertilizer use efficiency (FUE) [4,5] and various environmental problems, such as acid rain [6], soil pollution [7], biodiversity loss [8], and water eutrophication and contamination [9,10], which threaten the sustainable development of agriculture and even public health [11]. To put into practice the conviction that clear waters and green mountains are as valuable as mountains of gold and silver, and to achieve green agricultural production and sustainability, it is necessary to reduce the unreasonable use of chemical fertilizers. Public Health 2020, 17, 8830; doi:10.3390/ijerph17238830 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
