The application of organic fertilizers and farmers' income increase

Abstract

Abstract The extension of organic fertilizers helps improve soil quality and reduces non-point source pollution caused by excessive use of fertilizers, however, whether the application of organic fertilizers (OFA) contributes to an increase in farmers' income is a matter of debate. This paper discussed how the application of soil-testing formulas and outsourcing services that some or all links of agricultural production to professional organizations moderate the income-increasing effect of OFA, and Multinomial Endogenous Switching Regression Model (MESR) is selected to do the empirical test. The results indicate that OFA with soil-testing formula and OFA with outsourcing service can effectively increase farmers' income, in specific, OFA with soil-testing formula increases the net monetary income of wheat growing on per hectare (ha) of land by 2150 Renminbi (RMB), and OFA with outsourcing service increases the net monetary income of wheat growing on per ha of land by 3950 RMB, however, OFA has no effectiveness on increasing farmers' income if neither soil-testing formulas nor outsourcing services is available. The influence mechanism of OFA to improve farmers' income is to increase crop yield, but OFA has no effectiveness on increasing the price of products. A systematic extension services including the extension of organic fertilizers, soil testing formulas and outsourcing services should be formed in the future.