What Drives the Use of Organic Fertilizers? Evidence from Rice Farmers in Indo-Gangetic Plains, India

Abstract

There is a growing concern about the sustainability of agriculture due to the indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers in several parts of the world. In India, the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) is a region where the externalities of excessive use of chemical fertilizers for cereal production manifest in groundwater pollution, air pollution due to emissions, and soil degradation. In this context, we study the adoption of organic fertilizers in the region and the determining factors. We use data collected from 400 rice farmers to empirically test the link between farmers’ perceptions, revenue expectations, socioeconomic factors, and the policy environment to adopt organic fertilizers. We use Tobit and Cragg’s double hurdle model to study the farmers’ expenditure and adoption of organic fertilizers, respectively. The results show that only 32% of the farmers adopted organic fertilizers in the region. Further, membership in farmer organizations, training, and education are the key variables that determine the adoption of organic fertilizers, in addition to a positive perception of the benefits of their usage. The findings highlight the need for efficient extension efforts in organic fertilizers and suggest policy interventions that promote collective learning through farmer groups.

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

“…Market drivers have a facilitating effect on farmer behavior related to the adoption of technology and are stronger than the effect of government incentives [20] . Market drivers include the price of agricultural products after the substitution of green for conventional production factors, the recognition of the value of organic agricultural products, and the ease of marketing organic agricultural products, all of which have a positive effect on the adoption of organic fertilizer and biopesticides [10,[21][22][23] .…”

“…Raising livestock and poultry will increase the likelihood of applying organic fertilizer [33,34] . When it comes to individual characteristics, age, education and risk preference often have a positive and significant effect on the level of adoption of green production technologies [22,33,35] . Meanwhile, it has also been suggested that the younger or the more risk-averse the farmer is, the higher the probability of applying green production technologies [36] .…”

“…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] .…”