Exploring the Influence Mechanism of Farmers’ Organic Fertilizer Application Behaviors Based on the Normative Activation Theory

Jinhua Xie, Gangqiao Yang, Zhaoxia Guo and Ge Wang
Additional contact information
Jinhua Xie: College of Public Administration, Huazhong Agricultural University, 1 Shizishan Street, Wuhan 430070, China
Gangqiao Yang: College of Public Administration, Huazhong Agricultural University, 1 Shizishan Street, Wuhan 430070, China
Zhaoxia Guo: College of Public Administration, Huazhong Agricultural University, 1 Shizishan Street, Wuhan 430070, China
Ge Wang: College of Public Administration, Huazhong Agricultural University, 1 Shizishan Street, Wuhan 430070, China

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 11, 1-18

Abstract: This paper establishes an analysis framework to investigate the effect of the awareness of consequences and the ascription of responsibility on farmers’ organic fertilizer application behaviors (OFABs). Using questionnaire survey data from Hubei Province, one of the main grain-producing areas in China, this study employed both mediating effects and moderating effect analytical methods to analyze the influencing mechanism of the awareness of consequences and ascription of responsibility on farmers’ OFABs. The results show that, firstly, the awareness of consequences and ascription of responsibility have a significant positive impact on farmers’ OFABs. The improvement in farmers’ awareness of consequences and ascription of responsibility can effectively promote the utilization of organic fertilizers for enhanced ecological production. Secondly, the awareness of consequences and ascription of responsibility have a significant positive impact on farmers’ OFABs through individual farmers’ personal norms. Increasing farmers’ awareness of consequences and ascription of responsibility firstly stimulates their personal norms; then, personal norms have a positive impact on farmers’ OFABs. Thirdly, farmers’ social norms can positively regulate the relationship between personal norms and their OFABs. The higher the social norms of farmers, the more their social norms can have a positive regulating effect on their OFABs. Therefore, in the future, it will be necessary to vigorously promote farmers’ awareness of consequences and ascription of responsibility, in order to enhance farmers’ social norms, and to improve the level of farmers’ social norms, in order to greatly promote farmers’ engagement in OFABs. This will ultimately better promote rural ecological environmental protection and ecological civilization construction.

Keywords: awareness of consequences; ascription of responsibility; organic fertilizer application behaviors (OFABs); normative activation theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/11/1111/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/11/1111/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:10:y:2021:i:11:p:1111-:d:660835

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().