What Influences Farmers’ Adoption of Soil Testing and Formulated Fertilization Technology in Black Soil Areas? An Empirical Analysis Based on Logistic-ISM Model

Abstract

Along with the increasing prominence of environmental risks such as soil surface source pollution and declining quality grade of arable land, the issues of how to address irrational fertilizer application and enhance the safety of agricultural products have attracted widespread attention. In this context, clarifying the main factors affecting farmers’ use of soil testing and formulated fertilization technology (STFFT) can further improve the technology adoption rate and fertilizer utilization efficiency, promote standardized agricultural production and maintain the health and stability of soil ecology in black soil areas. This is of great significance to the construction of green agriculture, national dietary health and national food security. This study builds an “external environmental stimuli-perceived characteristics-adoption behavior” theoretical framework to investigate the decision-making and the dynamic influence mechanisms of farmers’ adoption behavior of STFFT. Based on farmer survey data, the logistic-ISM model has been applied. The main findings are as follows. First, five types of influencing factors, namely individual characteristics, family characteristics, business characteristics, cognitive characteristics and external environmental characteristics, had significant “push” effects on farmers’ STFFT adoption behavior. Among them, planting scale and technical training are the key factors influencing farmers’ adoption of scientific fertilizer application technology. Second, both farmers’ perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness play a significant role in farmers’ decision-making process, and the easier farmers perceive STFFT to be to master and the greater the benefits it brings, the more pronounced the tendency to adopt the technology, all other influencing conditions being equal. Third, the main influencing factors of farmers’ STFFT adoption behavior are intrinsically related and divided into four categories based on the magnitude of influence: deep-rooted, medium indirect, shallow indirect and superficial direct. In order to reduce further degradation of black soil caused by farmers’ irrational production habits and to improve resource utilization efficiency, this study recommends the government to further regulate the land transfer market, strengthen the propagation of soil-conservation-type technologies in black soil areas, expand the breadth of agricultural technology training and enhance farmers’ understanding and trust in STFFT. Thus, the maintenance of soil ecosystem in black soil areas, effective guarantee of food security and sustainable development of agriculture can be achieved.

Impacts of Technical Environment on the Adoption of Organic Fertilizers and Biopesticides Among Farmers: Evidence From Heilongjiang Province, China

“…The corresponding marginal effect of 0.004 indicates that for every additional 6.67 ha in planting area, the probability of farmers using organic fertilizer would increase by 0.4%, on average. This outcome is consistent with expectations and supports the earlier empirical findings of Anthoinette et al [30] who concluded that a larger scale of operation can significantly increase farmer ability to input organic fertilizer. The larger the scale of farming operations, the heavier the dependency on agricultural income.…”

“…The marginal effects corresponding to the three listed income categories are 0.084, 0.138 and 0.107, respectively, and the probability of adopting organic fertilizer increases by 8.4%, 13.8%, and 10.7%, respectively. A similar effect has been reported by Anthoinette et al [30] . A possible explanation is that a higher annual household income improves affordability and more likely the choice of organic fertilizer.…”

“…Farmer characteristics include amount of land, labor inputs and quantity of livestock. In terms of land characteristics, the larger the scale of operation, the higher the likelihood of applying organic fertilizer and biopesticides [30,31] . Land fragmentation will weaken such adoption [32] .…”

“…The exchange of information about agricultural production technology with others enhances information acquisition, enriches technical knowledge and experience, and reduces the uncertainty of new agricultural technologies [51] . Control variables explored in this study include farmland [10,30,32] , labor force structure [10,22,33] , farmer cognition [28,29] and householder characteristics [14,33,40] .…”

From Technology Adoption to Scientific Application: Can Agricultural Extension Services Effectively Promote Farmers’ Scientific Fertilization?

“…It is generally accepted that changes in farmers' fertilization behavior are influenced not only by their demographic, psychological, household, and production and business characteristics [2][3][4], but also by external incentives and government regulation [3][4][5]. For farmers, transitioning from traditional fertilization methods to scientific fertilization methods is a complex decisionmaking process to decide whether to adopt new technologies and new products, often relying on multiple information channels to help make decisions [6].…”