The Impact of Agricultural Extension on Farmer Nutrient Management Behavior in Chinese Rice Production: A Household-Level Analysis

Dan Pan

doi:10.3390/su6106644

Abstract

Agricultural nutrients play a critical role in food production and human nutrition in China. Against this backdrop, agricultural extension services are essential for providing farmers with knowledge and information about nutrient management. By using a propensity score-matching (PSM) approach, this study examines the impact of agricultural extension on farmer nutrient management behavior. Survey data about rice farmers in seven provinces of rural China are used. The empirical results indicate that participation in agricultural extension has a positive impact on rationalizing farmer nutrient management behavior. However, this impact is trivial. Compared with non-participating farmers, the reduced ratio of total fertilizer use and total inorganic fertilizer use by participating farmers is only 1.7% to 3.7%, and the improved ratio of the total organic fertilizer use and the level of soil-testing-based fertilizer use by participating farmers is only 1.008% to 1.173%. Additionally, the causal impacts of agricultural extension participation on nutrient management behavior tend to be higher for more educated, risk-loving and larger-scale farmers. This study reveals that China faces great challenges in implementing improved nutrient management practices for hundreds of millions of farmers through extension services. The findings also have important implications for China’s extension system to meet the objectives of improving nutrient management.

Highlights

Nutrients, such as nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), micronutrients, and others, are essential for plant growth, food production and, for adequate human nutrition [1]
The likelihood ratio statistics of −138.024 suggested that the estimated model is statistically significant at the 1% level and that the pseudo-R2 value indicates that the equation explains 25.39% of the variance in decision-making about whether to participate in an agricultural extension program
To gain further understanding of the impact of agricultural extension participation on different groups of participants, we examined the differential impact of participation by dividing households into different categories based on education level, risk attitude, initial application level and farm size

Summary

Introduction

Nutrients, such as nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), micronutrients, and others, are essential for plant growth, food production and, for adequate human nutrition [1]. It has been estimated that the survival of nearly half of the world’s population depends on the use of agricultural nutrient inputs [2], whereas lack of access to nutrients in most African countries is a primary cause of low crop yields and food shortages [3]. Over the past 50 years, China has successfully achieved food self-sufficiency for its rapidly growing population. China is feeding approximately 22% of the global population with only 7% of the global arable land area. This accomplishment was achieved primarily by increasing the use of chemical fertilizer nutrients, especially N and P. China is the world’s largest producer, consumer and importer of chemical fertilizers, consuming over 1/3 of the world’s chemical fertilizers and accounting for approximately

Objectives

Results

Conclusion