Neighbours' Influence on Farmer Adoption of Fertiliser Recommendations in Rubber Cultivation

摘要

Farmers' individual choices relating to agronomic practices are influenced by socio economic factors related to the farmer and his family as well as physical factors relating to the farm. Many studies that investigate these choices fail to recognise the importance of neighbours' influence on decision making. This research attempted to determine whether there exists a relationship between one farmer s choice and the choices of the neighbouring farmers in adoption of fertiliser recommendations in rubber cultivation of a sample of 393 smallholder farmers in one of the non-traditional rubber growing districts in Sri Lanka. Major aims of the research were to explicitly model spatial relationships in adoption of fertiliser application in rubber cultivation and to identify the factors that influence them. Bayesian Spatial Autoregressive Probit (SARP) model was used in the study. The neighbours' influence was measured in terms of a spatial correlation coefficient. Results revealed that the spatial correlation coefficient was positive and statistically significant, implying a strong influence by neighbours on a decision by a particular farmer. The results also highlighted the importance of socio economic factors and soil characteristics in adopting these practices.