The Effect of Technical Training Provided by Agricultural Cooperatives on Farmers’ Adoption of Organic Fertilizers in China: Based on the Mediation Role of Ability and Perception

Organic fertilizers can be crucial in promoting sustainable agricultural development, but they are not used in a wide-ranging way among smallholder farmers in many developing countries. In China, cooperatives are considered essential subjects of agricultural technical training, but it is more common to join cooperatives without participating in their technical training. Thus, joining cooperatives or not cannot simply be used to assess the role of cooperatives in influencing the farmers’ production behavior. Based on survey data of 1160 citrus farmers in Sichuan Province, China, this study estimated the effect of the technical training provided by agricultural cooperatives on farmers’ adoption of organic fertilizers, taking into account the farmers’ ability and perception as the mediation variables. The findings showed that participating in the technical training provided by agricultural cooperatives could significantly enhance the likelihood that farmers will adopt organic fertilizers. The impact was 81.6% in influencing the farmer’s abilities and 7.64% in their perceptions of organic fertilizers. Furthermore, other variables, such as farm sizes, land transfers, and education levels, also make a difference in the effectiveness of the agricultural cooperatives’ technical training. This study provides support for developing pertinent policies to promote the complete adoption of agricultural cooperatives’ technical training functions and the widespread use of organic fertilizers.