Impact of farmer group participation on the adoption of sustainable farming practices—spatial analysis of New Zealand dairy farmers

Abstract

This paper analyzes the impact of participation in farmer groups on dairy farmers’ adoption of sustainable farming practices in New Zealand. A spatial propensity score matching method is used to consider the spatial dependence and social connections between farmers in the decision‐making of farmer group participation and adoption of sustainable farming practices. The results show that farmers’ decisions of farmer group participation are affected by their neighbors’ choices, and participation in farmer groups has a positive effect on farmers’ adoption of sustainable farming practices. The findings indicate the important role of social interactions in farmers’ voluntary uptake of sustainable agricultural practices. Overall, the positive effect of farmer group participation on the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices highlights learning and knowledge spillover among farmers, which emerges as important to the formulation of sustainable farming policy.

Cooperative membership and new technology adoption of family farms: Evidence from China

“…The estimation results show that a family farm's cooperative membership is positively and significantly influenced by the participation of its neighbor, which is consistent with Ito et al. (2012), Ma and Abdulai (2016) and Yang and Wang (2022). Next, we run the OLS regressions for outcome equations and find that the instrument is uncorrelated with the outcome variables, suggesting the validity of the instrument.…”

“…In order to check the validity of this instrument, we run a probit regression for selection equation, in which the outcome variable is cooperative membership and the independent variables include the identifying instrument and control variables. The estimation results show that a family farm's cooperative membership is positively and significantly influenced by the participation of its neighbor, which is consistent with Ito et al (2012), Ma and Abdulai (2016) and Yang and Wang (2022). Next, we run the OLS regressions for outcome equations and find that the instrument is uncorrelated with the outcome variables, suggesting the validity of the instrument.…”

Spatial Spillover Effects of “New Farmers” on Diffusion of Sustainable Agricultural Practices: Evidence from China

“…As a composited farming strategy, a growing number of studies reveal the spatial effects of SAP adoption within and amongst neighborhoods [4,15,16]. The adoption of SAPs is influenced by three types of spatial effects: combined effect, spillover effect, and distance decay effect (see Figure 1).…”

“…According to Zheng, Ma [15], the adoption of droughttolerant wheat varieties in China was spatially dependent and farmers' decisions were influenced by those of their neighbors as well as by farmers with whom they had close connections via smartphones or extension services. In an empirical study of New Zealand dairy farmers, Yang and Wang [16] found that the social interactions between neighboring farmers significantly contributed to SAP adoption. Exploring the spatial effects of SAPs is of great significance in guiding the agriculture transition.…”

False prosperity: Rethinking government support for farmers’ cooperatives in China

“…The most important function of co‐ops mentioned in the literature is the ability to help small households collectively bargain with sellers of farm inputs or buyers of farm outputs to achieve ideal prices (Bijman & Iliopoulos, 2014; Deng et al., 2010). Some studies also found that cooperatives can effectively promote food safety (Ji et al., 2019; Zhou et al., 2019), technology adoption (Wang et al., 2019; Yang & Wang, 2022), and farm performance (Grashuis & Skevas, 2022; Neupane et al., 2022). In addition to economic functions, some researchers (Bijman & Iliopoulos, 2014; Liang et al., 2021; Song et al., 2014) have highlighted the social function of co‐ops, including promoting gender equality (Ishemo & Bushell, 2017).…”