Effect of Government Intervention and Market Incentives on Farmer Organic Fertilizer Application Behavior and Agricultural Emission Reduction
Publication: Natural Hazards Review
Volume 24, Issue 1
Abstract
Substituting organic fertilizer for chemical fertilizer is widely viewed as an effective path to promoting sustainable agricultural development amidst the imminent threat of climate change. This paper investigates the effect of government intervention and market incentives on farmers’ organic fertilizer application behavior (FOFAB), using survey data from Xinjiang, China. The results show that, first, three sub-dimensional variables of government intervention, namely policy publicity, fiscal subsidies, and regulation constraints, all have a significantly positive impact on FOFAB, and that fiscal subsidy ranks first in terms of influencing the degree of the effect. Second, there is a mediating effect of market incentives on the relationship between government intervention and FOFAB via three paths, namely the market price of organic fertilizer, the cost of applying organic fertilizer, and market demand for organic food. The most significant mechanism is that fiscal subsidies have a positive influence on FOFAB by activating market demand for organic food, reducing the cost of applying organic fertilizer, and promoting the market price of organic food. In addition, the variables of family endowments have a steady and significant effect on FOFAB. Social networks did not exert a positive effect on FOFAB. Therefore, the local government should incentivize governmental intervention measures to improve the market competition mechanism, encourage more farmers to join agricultural cooperatives, and expand social networks to facilitate FOFAB.
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Data Availability Statement
The data and code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The work is supported by the Planning Project of Philosophy and Social Science of Anhui Province, China (Grant No. AHSKQ2019D014), Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 2108085QG301), and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFD0201506). The authors thank International Science Editing (http://www.internationalscienceediting.com) for editing this manuscript. Author contributions: Ning Lv helped in farmer interviews, data investigation and validation, chart making and concluding policy implication, and writing the original draft. Fang Liu helped in writing the literature review, empirical outcomes sections, policy recommendations, and revised the final manuscript, and provided funding support. Honghui Zhu constructed the methodology section and provided suggestions to improve the manuscript. Guodong Wang participated in its design and coordination and drafted the manuscript. All the authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
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Natural Hazards Review
Volume 24 • Issue 1 • February 2023
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© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Jan 6, 2022
Accepted: Jul 12, 2022
Published online: Sep 29, 2022
Published in print: Feb 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Feb 28, 2023
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