Abstract
Organic fertilizers offer agronomic and ecological advantages over chemical fertilizers, making them critical for curbing chemical fertilizer overuse without threatening food security. While subsidies are commonly used to encourage organic-chemical substitution, less is known about how farmers respond to different subsidy levels and how such responses reshape economic and environmental trade-offs. Using survey data from 983 vegetable farmers in China, this study applies a farm-level positive mathematical programming model to simulate short-run input allocation under alternative organic fertilizer subsidy scenarios. The results show that higher subsidies increase organic fertilizer use and reduce chemical fertilizer use, but do not generate uniformly positive outcomes across policy dimensions. Subsidy-induced substitution is associated with lower operating profit excluding subsidy transfers, although the magnitude of this effect varies across crops. Environmental performance improves as substitution intensifies, but the marginal return to additional subsidy weakens at higher subsidy levels. The findings reveal trade-offs across target attainment, production-side profitability, and environmental improvement. Under the present short-run scenario design with fixed land endowments, a moderate subsidy range around 250–300 CNY/ton appears most policy-relevant, because it achieves or nearly achieves the stated substitution targets while avoiding the sharper economic deterioration observed at higher subsidy levels. The results suggest that effective policy design should calibrate subsidy intensity to policy objectives, crop heterogeneity, and complementary support measures.
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This study is supported by the National Social Science Fund of China (Grant number 21CGL027).
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This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Beijing Wuzi University on April 20, 2022 (Ethics approval number: BWU202204003). The scope of approval covered all aspects of the study, including interviewee selection, data collection, and data analysis. The research protocol was reviewed for compliance with ethical standards set out in the Declaration of Helsinki and relevant institutional and national regulations. All procedures involving human participants were conducted in accordance with these standards.
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This study involved structured survey questionnaires. All participants were fully informed with comprehensive information regarding: (1) the study purpose; (2) voluntary participation and the right to withdraw at any time without consequence; (3) assurance of data anonymity and confidentiality; (4) utilization of data for academic publication. The informed written consent form was obtained from all participants between June 2022 and September 2023, before the data collection.
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Deng, L., Zhao, J. Unraveling how subsidy policies shape farmers’ fertilizer applications: implications for organic-chemical substitution.
Humanit Soc Sci Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-09012-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-09012-y
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