The impact of rural-urban migration experience on fertilizer use: Evidence from rice production in China

Abstract

While a growing number of rural migrants return to engage in agriculture, little attention has been attached to the impact of rural-urban migration experience on fertilizer use. From a theoretical perspective, rural-urban migration experience could affect fertilizer use through remittance, adoption of new agricultural technologies, and improved management philosophy. Using a cross-sectional survey dataset covering 1122 rice-producing farm households in China, this study examines the impact of rural-urban migration experience on fertilizer use in rice production. The treatment effects model and instrumental variable method are employed to account for the self-selection bias and endogeneity of rural-urban migration experience. The survey shows that the heads of 261 farm households had rural-urban migration experience. The econometric results illustrate that rural-urban migration experience is conducive to reducing fertilizer use in rice production. The neglect of self-selection bias and endogeneity of rural-urban migration experience would produce biased and inconsistent results. Moreover, there is a positive impact of rice-fertilizer price ratio on fertilizer use, and the adoption of hybrid rice variety and participation in technology training activities could reduce fertilizer use in rice production.