Highlights

• We examine the effect of public agricultural extension services on fertilizer use.

• The treat-effect model is used to address the endogeneity issue.

• Public agricultural extension services increase fertilizer use in rice production.

• Heterogeneous effects of public agricultural extension services are found.

Abstract

Fertilizer overuse causes serious environmental degradation, and it is important to identify the influencing factors of fertilizer use. To feed the largest population worldwide, China has adopted a productivity-led agricultural policy regime and established the largest public agricultural extension system. Given that China is the largest consumer of fertilizers, understanding the role of public agricultural extension services (PAES) in the context of the productivity-led agricultural policy regime can provide a new insight for policy-makers to take measures to reduce fertilizer use. Using survey data of 1002 rice farmers in 2018, this study employs the treatment-effect model to examine the effect of PAES adoption on fertilizer use and its heterogeneity. The results show that about 22% of rice farmers adopt PAES. After addressing the endogeneity issue, farmers' PAES adoption raises total fertilizer use, nitrogen fertilizer use and fertilizer expenditure in rice production by 242.96 kg/ha, 109.37 kg/ha and 1400 Chinese yuan per hectare (CNY/ha), respectively. The effects of PAES adoption on fertilizer use are heterogeneous in different provinces. These results indicate that moves should be directed towards altering the productivity-led agricultural policy regime, reinforcing the development of socialization agricultural service system, and altering the contents and approaches of agricultural extension services.