A Study On The Extension Of Fertilizer-and Pesticides-reducing Technologies In Rice

China has become the country with the highest total input and highest input per unit area of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in the world.The excessive use of chemical inputs has caused multiple crises such as ecological destruction,environmental pollution and quality and safety problem.The extension of fertilizer-and pesticides-reducing technologies has become the key to achieve green transformation and improve production quality and efficiency of rice.However,it is a long-term and arduous task to promote fertilizer-and pesticides-reducing technologies among rice farmers.On one hand,the aging and concurrent characteristics of farmers have led to labor constraints.On the other hand,compared with conventional technologies,green and efficient production technologies have higher requirements of production factors and production management generally.These require the innovation of extension path of fertilizer-and pesticides-reducing technologies.This study took the rice fertilizer-and pesticides-reducing technologies as the research object.The theoretical framework of"innovation attributes-communication channels-social extension system" based on Rogers’ innovation diffusion theory was constructed to study adoption and extension issues of fertilizer-and pesticides-reducing technologies.The study firstly studied on the rice farmers’ potential for reduction the input of fertilizers and pesticides using the C-D Production Function,Damage Control Function and the data of 678 rice farmers in six major rice producing provinces in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.Secondly,a set of fertilizer-and pesticides-reducing technologies was selected by Delphi method and five attributes(relative advantages,complexity,compatibility,testability and observability)of each technology were analyzed.Fertilizer-and pesticides-reducing technologies were classified into three categories:labor-intensive,capital-intensive and high-skilled technologies according to their attributes.Then the research analyzed effects of technology community channels including technical demonstration and farmers’ social network and productive services on farmers’adoptions of labor-intensive,capital-intensive and high-skilled technologies based on the data of 601 rice farmers in Zhejiang Province and Jiangsu Province using Spatial Lag Models.Diffusion characteristics of three categories of technologies were summarized by the analysis results.Given the importance of productive services in the extension of fertilizer-and pesticides-reducing technologies,the Kano Model and Hierarchical Linear Models were used to distinguish the intensity,priority and influencing factors of farmers’ demands for productive services.Finally,for key points and difficulties in technology extension,case study was used to further analyze the cooperation mechanism and division of roles between government and the new management entities in the extension of fertilizer-and pesticides-reducing technologies.Conclusions of this study could be mainly divided into the following five parts:Conclusion One:Rice farmers had a great potential for reduction the input of fertilizers and pesticides in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.Excessive use of chemical fertilizers was serious and the actual chemical fertilizer application amount was 1.43 times of the optimal application amount.Fertilizer input had at least one-third reducing potential and at least 73%of rice farmers should adopt fertilizer reducing technologies.Excessive use of pesticides was also serious and the marginal productivity of pesticides input had been close to zero.Conclusion Two:Based on the principles including yield stability,reducing the amount of fertilizers and pesticides input and suitable for promotion,a set of fertilizer-and pesticides-reducing technologies was selected.These technologies had obvious compatibility,testability and observability and some technologies had the relative advantage of reducing costs.However,compared with conventional planting technologies,fertilizer-and pesticides-reducing technologies had higher complexity which was manifested in three aspects including increasing labor input,purchasing equipment or mechanical and higher learning difficulty.Summing up all attributes,rice fertilizer-and pesticides-reducing technologies could be divided into labor-intensive,capital-intensive and high-skilled technologies.Conclusion Three:Spatial Lag Models showed that the technology demonstration as a heterogeneous communication channel between professional groups and farmers had a significant effect on farmers’ adoption of capital-intensive and high-skilled technologies.Demonstration effect was significant on capital-intensive and high-skilled technologies’ diffusion which gradually decreased from the core demonstration area to the surrounding area.Farmers’ social network as an important communication channel had a significant effect on farmers’ adoption of labor-intensive and high-skilled technologies.Aggregation effect was significant on labor-intensive and capital-intensive technologies’ diffusion.Farmers with similar levels of adoption are geographically close to each other.Conclusion Four:The Kano Model showed that the most urgent needed services of rice farmers were plant protection information,a unified supply of seedlings and unified prevention and treatment services while their response to the material supply information service and soil testing information service were most negative.The hierarchical linear models were used to analyze factors impacting farmers’ demands for productive services.The results showed that for the farmers with low-level technology adoption their demands for the services were significantly impacted by regional economic development level,production areas,planting labor and technical cognition,while for those farmers with high-level technology adoption,regional service levels and production areas significantly affected their service demands.Conclusion Five:Case study showed that government should play a basic role in establishing technical demonstration areas,providing policies,funds,subsidies and public welfare such as technical training,plant protection information and purchasing productive services for farmers.The new agricultural business entities should responsible for the operation of demonstration areas and providing productive services in order to take advantages of human capital in local and take advantages of specialization and large-scale services which could optimize the extension of fertilizer-and pesticides-reducing technologies.