Ziyuan Kexue (Aug 2023)
The impact of green agricultural subsidies on fertilizer reduction and its mechanism: Evidence from pilot policies for organic fertilizer subsidies
Abstract
[Objective] This research aimed to investigate the impact of green agricultural subsidies on the intensity of chemical fertilizer use, which is a crucial policy that encourages agricultural production entities to reduce chemical fertilizer use and prevent farmland non-point pollution. [Methods] The study regarded the substitution of organic fertilizers for chemical fertilizers as a policy impact and constructed a theoretical model to explore the internal process of the policy affecting the intensity of chemical fertilizer use from three perspectives: income effect, factor resetting, and planting structure adjustment. The research used the difference-in-differences (DID) and mechanism testing models to analyze the effect and mechanism of impact of organic fertilizer subsidies on chemical fertilizer reduction, based on the panel data of county-level agricultural production in China from 2013 to 2020 and a counterfactual causality analysis framework. [Results] The findings of this study show that the organic fertilizer subsidy policy led to an average decrease of about 7.5% in the intensity of chemical fertilizer use, effectively promoting the reduction of chemical fertilizer use in the counties, and that the effect had significant heterogeneity among crop production zones. Mechanism testing showed that the reduction effect mainly occurred through two pathways: increased input of agricultural labor and agricultural machinery technology that replaces chemical fertilizers, and expansion of the ratio of economic and food crops, which led to planting structure adjustment. [Conclusion] This study confirmed that the green agricultural subsidy policy was able to achieve chemical fertilizer reduction and efficiency increase through improved allocation of agricultural labor, the increase of agricultural machinery and technology inputs, and the adjustment of crop planting structure. Therefore, it is recommended that the promotion of organic fertilizer use through green subsidies should be continued in an active and orderly manner, with full recognition of the heterogeneous effects for different crop types on the reduction of use and increase in efficiency of chemical fertilizers by the implementation of green agricultural subsidies, and that multiple measures should be taken to promote the green development of agriculture in a solid and steady manner.
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