Research on cooperative's information services, farmers' cognition, and fertilizer reduction behavior: evidence from China

The traditional agricultural model of pursuing economic benefits while neglecting the environment has been unsuitable for the current rural areas. Shifting to a new sustainable development model is an essential challenge for rural areas. To address this challenge, this study analyzed the joint influence of the cooperative's information services and farmers' cognition on farmers' fertilizer reduction behavior based on 509 research data from 73 citrus cooperatives and their members in Sichuan Province, China, using fractional logit and OLS models. There was evidence that farmers in Sichuan Province, China, were not highly motivated to reduce fertilizer, and the mean value of the degree of fertilizer reduction was only 14.87%. The cooperative's information services have a significant positive effect on farmers' fertilizer reduction behavior, and its intrinsic mechanism of action is mainly reflected in the fact that the development of cooperative's information services can improve farmers' cognition of green agriculture, which in turn promotes the reduction of fertilizer use by farmers. Based on this, this study puts forward suggestions from the three levels of government, cooperatives, and farmers to promote the reduction and efficiency of chemical fertilizers and accelerate the transformation of green production, which is conducive to promoting the coordinated development of rural ecological environment and economic benefits into reality.