Effects Of Cultivated Land Fragmentation On Farmers’ Over-fertilization Behavior

China is a country with more people and less land,but it has created the miracle of "feeding 22% of the world’s population with 7% of the land",in which the use of chemical fertilizer has played an indispensable role.Although the input of chemical fertilizer has made great contribution to the increase of grain production,the situation of over-fertilization and low utilization efficiency of chemical fertilizer is widespread in China.Re-examining the relationship between cultivated land fragmentation,non-agricultural employment,government regulation and farmers’ over-fertilization behavior can provide theoretical and empirical reference for the green and sustainable development of agriculture.Based on the research data of "Ecological Protection and high-quality Development of Agriculture and Rural areas in the Yellow River Basin" of Northwest A&F University in2020,this study firstly measured the degree of over-fertilization of sample farmers in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River and analyzed their over-fertilization behavior characteristics.Secondly,farmers’ over-fertilization behavior was characterized as two stages,decision making and degree,and the Probit and tail breaking regression two-stage models were used to explore the influence of cultivated land fragmentation degree on sample farmers’ over-fertilization behavior.Finally,two key variables of non-agricultural employment and government regulation were introduced,and the mediating effect model and regulating effect model were used to analyze the mediating and regulating effects of non-agricultural employment and government regulation on the influence cultivated land fragmentation for farmers’ over-fertilization behavior,so as to seek effective solutions to reduce the amount of fertilization for farmers.The main conclusions of this paper are as follows:(1)Among the 1402 households surveyed,492 households didn’t have over-fertilization,accounting for 35.09%,and 910 households had over-fertilization,accounting for 64.91%.The proportion of over-fertilization in the range of(0.80,1.00] was as high as 25.11%,It can be seen that there was obvious over-fertilization in the research area,and the over-fertilization was very serious;(2)The degree of cultivated land fragmentation has significant influence on farmers’ decision making and degree of farmers’ over-fertilization behavior.Specifically,there is a significant negative correlation between the average plot area and farmers’ decision on over-fertilization behavior and the degree of over-fertilization.that is,the higher the degree of fragmentation,the more likely farmers are to over-fertilize,and with the deepening of the degree of fragmentation,the more serious the degree of over-fertilization;(3)Non-agricultural employment has a mediating effect on the influence of cultivated land fragmentation on farmers’ decision making and degree of over-fertilization behavior.Among them,the average plot area has a significant negative impact on non-agricultural employment,and the degree of non-agricultural employment has a significant negative impact on both farmers’ decision making and degree of over-fertilization behavior,indicating that cultivated land fragmentation has an impact on farmers’ over-fertilization behavior to some extent through affecting farmers’ non-agricultural employment,that is,the higher the degree of cultivated land fragmentation,the easier it is for farmers to engage in non-agricultural employment.Thus,it promoted the emergence of farmers’ over-fertilization behavior and the improvement of the degree of over-fertilization;(4)Government regulation has a moderating effect on the influence of cultivated land fragmentation on farmers’ decision making and degree of over-fertilization behavior.Specifically,supervision policies,punishment policies and incentive policies play a positive role in regulating the effect of cultivated cultivated land fragmentation on farmers’ behavior decision of over-fertilization,that is,properly strengthening supervision policies,punishment policies and incentive policies can effectively weaken the effect of cultivated land fragmentation on farmers’ behavior decision of over-fertilization.Supervision policies play a positive role in regulating the effect of cultivated land fragmentation on the degree of farmers’ over-fertilization behavior,that is,properly strengthening supervision policies can effectively weaken the effect of cultivated land fragmentation on the degree of farmers’ over-fertilization behavior.