The Effect of Social Network on Controlled-Release Fertilizer Use: Evidence from Rice Large-Scale Farmers in Jiangsu Province, China

Abstract

The reduction and efficiency of fertilizer use has been a recent focus of governments and scholars. As a new agricultural technology, controlled-release fertilizer can not only increase yield and save labor, but also improve efficiency and reduce the use of fertilizer, thus promoting sustainable agricultural development. Drawing on a sample of 231 farmers of Jiangsu Province, China, this paper applies a probit model to assess the adoption behavior of controlled-release fertilizer by large-scale households in terms of three dimensions of social network, i.e., communication intensity, trust level, and network size, specifically exploring how science popularization influences their adoption intention, and comparing the heterogeneity of impact that social network has on the adoption intention of farmers when the information is obtained adequately or not. The empirical results demonstrate that: (1) At the early stage of technology diffusion, the size of social network has a positive effect on farmers’ cognition of controlled-release fertilizer, and the communication intensity with neighboring farmers has a positive effect on the adoption behavior of controlled-release fertilizer; (2) Farmers’ adoption intention of controlled-release fertilizer is significantly influenced by their original knowledge of new technology and science popularization; (3) When the information is sufficient, the social network of large-scale households has no significant effect on their willingness to adopt. Therefore, in promoting controlled-release fertilizer, the government should highlight the synergistic effect of farmers’ cognition and science popularization activities, fully consider the characteristics of farmers’ social network, facilitate the infrastructure of rural informatization, and regulate the agricultural promotion networks so that farmers can obtain sufficient and effective information.