1. Introduction
Chemical fertilizers have considerably increased grain production and hastened China’s agricultural development [
1,
2]. However, overuse of chemical fertilizers over the years has resulted in deteriorating soil quality, contaminated water, and increased greenhouse gas emissions [
3,
4]. The promotion of organic fertilizers is the main action the Chinese government has tried to conduct in order to decrease the usage of chemical fertilizers. (It is the “Action to Achieve Zero Growth of Pesticide Use by 2020” proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China in 2015. For more detailed information, please refer to:
http://www.zzys.moa.gov.cn/gzdt/201503/t20150318_6309945.htm, (accessed on 18 March 2015). It is the “Action Program to replace chemical fertilizers with organic fertilizers for fruits, vegetables and tea” proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China in 2017. For more detailed information, please refer to:
http://www.moa.gov.cn/nybgb/2017/derq/201712/t20171227_6130977.htm, (accessed on 27 December 2017). Compared with chemical fertilizers, organic fertilizers are more beneficial in mitigating climate change, preserving the soil’s fertility, and ensuring the excellence of agricultural products [
3,
5,
6,
7].
To some extent, adopting organic fertilizers can be considered adopting new technologies [
8,
9]. At this stage of development, adopting new technologies is the core of the growth of agriculture in China. It has been discovered that there are many similarities between the conclusions of domestic and international research on adopting new technology. We summarized the factors into three levels. Previous studies have shown that farmers’ adoption of new technologies depends on a variety of factors, such as individual features and household characteristics, which are influenced explicitly by household heads’ age, education levels, farm size, household size, farmers’ risk attitudes, personal preferences, technology perceptions, and membership in farm cooperatives [
10,
11,
12,
13,
14,
15]. At the same time, socioeconomic factors may also influence the adoption of organic fertilizers, such as policy environment, off-farm income, and the cost of adopting new agricultural technologies [
16,
17]. The technical factors include technical training, the ability to apply technology, and the new technology’s performance. Among them, farmers’ insufficient mastery of organic fertilizers technology and poor perceptions of organic fertilizers are crucial factors that hinder the adoption of organic fertilizers [
18]. Due to farmers being limited by their abilities and perceptions, they often turn to external organizations for technical assistance. External technical assistance is provided to farmers mainly through technical training. There are usually three main types of technical training that farmers may participate in: technical training provided by government-assigned experts, fertilizers suppliers, and agricultural cooperatives.
Most of the technical training provided by the training subjects often has weak targeting, substantial limitations, a small service audience, and other defects. Through one-on-one training and field guidance, agricultural cooperatives have apparent advantages in training farmers and promoting agricultural technologies [
19,
20]. For example, regarding technology adoption, Wang et al. and Suvedi et al. found that farmers who join cooperatives have easier access to advanced technologies and make more rational technology-adoption decisions [
21,
22]. Regarding technology application, Kashiwagi [
23] found that farmers with cooperative membership were more technically efficient and had more significant technological progress. In general, agricultural cooperatives have advantages in promoting agricultural technologies. Existing studies have analyzed the current situation of technology adoption mainly in terms of whether farmers have membership in cooperatives. However, not all farmers with cooperative membership are equally affected by agricultural cooperatives. For example, only farmers involved in agricultural cooperatives’ technical training are affected by the technical training function of cooperatives [
24].
In reality, no more than 50% of farmers choose to adopt organic fertilizers in China [
8,
9,
25,
26], and an even smaller percentage could appropriately apply organic fertilizers [
10,
27]. Therefore, how can we improve the farmers’ adoption of organic fertilizers? According to the relevant information, the available research findings cannot answer whether agricultural cooperatives’ technical training can promote farmers’ adoption of organic fertilizers or explain the mechanism of action of technical training provided by agricultural cooperatives in influencing farmers’ adoption of organic fertilizers. Therefore, this study’s main goal is to give a more thorough evaluation of how the technical training provided by agricultural cooperatives affects farmers’ adoption of organic fertilizers. The focus on the mechanisms of technical training provided by agricultural cooperatives on farmers’ adoption of organic fertilizers will help deepen the understanding of the technology diffusion function of agricultural cooperatives and their role in promoting sustainable agricultural development. This study contributes to research on the use of organic fertilizers, the spread of agricultural technology, and the development of sustainable agriculture. First, we conduct an empirical analysis of how farmers’ adoption of organic fertilizers is affected by the technical training provided by agricultural cooperatives. According to earlier studies, farmers’ adoption of organic fertilizers is influenced by their membership in agricultural cooperatives. However, not all farmers who join cooperatives are equally influenced. Considering the function of technology diffusion of agricultural cooperatives, it is necessary to analyze further the effect of the technical training provided by agricultural cooperatives on farmers’ adoption of organic fertilizers. Second, we analyze the mediation role of farmers’ abilities and perceptions on the relationship between agricultural cooperatives’ technical training and farmers’ adoption of organic fertilizers. According to certain studies, farmers’ abilities and perceptions of new technology have a meaningful impact on the effectiveness of technology diffusion [
13,
17]. This study introduces two mediation variables: farmers’ ability with organic fertilizers and farmers’ perceptions of organic fertilizers. By estimating their mediation effects, we further explore the impact of technical training provided by agricultural cooperatives on farmers’ adoption of organic fertilizers in terms of ability and perception. Third, this study is in light of the cash crop, citrus. Most previous studies on promoting organic fertilizers technology are focused on grain crops, such as rice and soybeans. However, compared with traditional grain crops, citrus as a cash crop has a significant market profit and is more likely to cause the irrational use of fertilizers.
Other structures of this paper are as follows: In
Section 2, we present the theoretical framework and hypotheses.
Section 3 presents the model, data, and variable selection, while
Section 4 presents the empirical results.
Section 5 describes the conclusions and implications.
5. Conclusions and Implications
5.1. Conclusions
Farmers’ inability to use new technology is mainly impacted by their lack of knowledge and skill. Therefore, this study made a core analysis of the impact of technical training provided by agricultural cooperatives on farmers’ use of organic fertilizer and discussed its influencing mechanism from the perspective of farmers’ technical abilities and perceptions. By taking citrus growers in China as samples, this study has better understood the influence of technical training on adopting organic fertilizers by farmers in agricultural cooperatives, thus contributing to the literature.
Some conclusions were drawn through theoretical analysis and empirical estimation. First, farmers’ adoption of organic fertilizers can be promoted through the technical training provided by agricultural cooperatives. Second, farmers’ abilities of organic fertilizers technology, farmers’ perceptions of the economic value of organic fertilizers, and farmers’ perceptions of the ecological value of organic fertilizers play a mediating role in the technical training provided by agricultural cooperatives to promote farmers’ adoption of organic fertilizers. Specifically, farmers’ abilities with organic fertilizers technology (81.56%) play a fully mediating role, while farmers’ perceptions of the economic value of organic fertilizers (5.1%) and farmers’ perceptions of the ecological value of organic fertilizers (2.54%) play a partially mediating role. Third, smaller farm sizes, farmers with land-transfer experience, farmers with lower education, and agricultural cooperatives in the south Sichuan economic zone and northeast Sichuan economic zone positively influence farmers’ adoption of organic fertilizers.
The fact that we only paid attention to citrus farmers in China and ignored other crop species is a limitation of this study. Further research including different crops and different regions is required to examine the external validity of our findings given the growing significance of technical training provided by agricultural cooperatives in enhancing the likelihood that farmers will adopt organic fertilizers. Moreover, this might contribute to a better understanding of how technical training affects the adoption of agricultural technology. Future research could focus on other crucial questions, such as comparing the difference in training effects of various training organizations that use the same training form.
5.2. Implications
The conclusions of this study have significant implications for encouraging Chinese farmers to adopt organic fertilizers. First, the conclusion further supports that the government should adopt incentives, such as subsidies, for participating in the technical training provided by agricultural cooperatives and introduce additional policies to improve the system of technical training provided by agricultural cooperatives. Thus, farmers perceive the authority of the technical training provided by agricultural cooperatives, so they may voluntarily join the technical training provided by agricultural cooperatives. Second, agricultural cooperatives’ technical training influenced farmers’ adoption of organic fertilizers by affecting their ability and perception. When agricultural cooperatives are the subject of technical training, they should focus on farmers’ abilities of organic fertilizers technology and enhance their perceptions of organic fertilizers. Through demonstration cases, technical explanations, and other forms, farmers can feel the benefits of adopting organic fertilizers and thus choose to adopt organic fertilizers. Third, different farm sizes, land transfers, farmers’ education levels, and economic zones make a difference in the effectiveness of the technical training provided by agricultural cooperatives. Thus, agricultural cooperatives should take complete account of the differences among farmers and adopt different approaches to their technical training. For example, agricultural cooperatives should consider theoretical technical training in organic fertilizers for farmers who lack basic knowledge of organic fertilizers. For farmers with a basic understanding of organic fertilizers, agricultural cooperatives should consider field technical training in organic fertilizers, such as field instruction and other forms, to make technical training more accessible and relevant for different farmers.