Analysis on factors influencing organic fertilizer use in China -A case study on wheat farmers in six eastern provincial-level regions

Abstract

The overuse and residue of chemical fertilizer are becoming big problems m food safety and negatively affect the environment in China Organic fertilizer is considered less harmful to food safety, soil quality and environment than chemical fertilizer, however, it is not as widely used as chemical fertilizer The main research objective in this study is to examine the factors influencing organic fertilizer use in China In this research, the farmers who sell less agricultural products are measured as more willing to use organic fertilizer while those who do less off-farm work use more organic fertilizer Meanwhile, higher income is found to make farmers more willing to use organic fertilizer and farmers with larger farming scale are more willing to use organic fertilizer Finally, education level, age and yield of wheat are not identified as significant factors effecting farmers usage of organic fertilizer.