Impacts of the Extension of Cassava Soil Conservation and Efficient Technology on the Reduction of Chemical Fertilizer Input in China

The reduction of fertilizer inputs can be considered as an effective policy tool for achieving Sustainable Development Goal 12 and for reaching carbon neutrality. In this study, we examine the impact of the extension of cassava (Manihot sculenta) soil conservation and efficiency (SCE) technology on the cost of chemical fertilizers used by China’s cassava industry. The SCE technology was developed by a Technology Integration and Demonstration (TID) Project of China’s National Key R&D Program, which is an innovative and official channel of agriculture technology extension. Based on data collected from cassava farmers in Guiping, Guangxi, China, the differences-in-differences with propensity score matching (PSM-DID) approach was conducted in this study. We found that farmers participating in the cassava SCE technology project reported a reduction in fertilizer costs per mu (15 mu = 1 ha) of approximately 24.0%. Consequently, the results demonstrate that the government can increase the number of TID projects in order to reduce chemical fertilizer inputs and to encourage the sustainable development of agriculture.