Adoption of eco-friendly soil-management practices by smallholder farmers in Shandong Province of China

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Land degradation and agricultural pollution have been of great concern around the world in recent years, especially in developing countries. It is necessary to expand some eco-friendly soil-management practices to address serious environmental issues. Using data from 646 small-farm households in Shandong, China, perceptions of eco-friendly soil-management practices and land degradation, adoption attitudes and final adoption decisions are all evaluated, and the factors affecting farmers’ final adoption decisions are estimated by applying a logit model. The results show that the perception levels of land degradation and eco-friendly soil-management practices are very high, and more than 70% of the respondents indicated that they wanted to adopt the practices; however, only a small portion of the interviewed farmers made the final decision to apply these practices. Of all the factors, perception of practices and adoption attitude were the most important ones influencing farmers’ adoption decision positively. Knowledge of environmental regulations, risk type, degree of farmland fertility, agro-technical training, participation in agricultural insurance, interaction with other farmers and membership in farmers’ organizations had positive relationships with adoption decisions, whereas availability of farming funding influenced adoption decisions negatively. According to these findings, ensuring agricultural profit is the primary basis for farmers’ adoption decisions; however, agricultural information—especially information about eco-friendly soil-management technologies—should also be widely dispersed, and environmental regulations should be strictly enforced.