Recently, the excessive use of chemical fertilizers in China has become a serious concern. Although the importance of the farmers’ autonomy over agricultural technology, including fertilizers, has been previously investigated, it has been ignored owing to certain structural reasons, such as the unique urban-rural dual structure. However, sufficient attention should be paid to the fact that the transition from traditional fertilizers to chemical ones occurred in the special historical period of agricultural collectivization prior to the Economic reforms and opening-up; hence, it is necessary to clarify the countermeasures under different social conditions and examine the agricultural policy. Therefore, in this study, the historical transformation of the fertilizer farming method in the People's Republic of China since 1949 from a viewpoint of the autonomy of the Chinese farmers was analyzed. Through this study, it was found that the transition in fertilizer farming techniques in China was gradual, and the Indigenous Chemical Fertilizer that took place during the transitional period was crucial. As a result of accidents or failures encountered during their participating in the production of Indigenous Chemical Fertilizer, farmers acquired the relevant empirical knowledge of chemical fertilizers in participating. Therefore, instead of a uniform dependence on chemical fertilizers, farmers became more aware of soil and the shortcomings of chemical fertilizers, etc., and were able to make autonomous decisions on the use of fertilizers. In addition, the production of Indigenous Chemical Fertilizer is itself a process of innovation that is somehow beyond the autonomy of decision-making. Thus, Farmers are now giving play to the autonomy to insist on traditional organic farming methods as a supplement to chemical fertilizers as much as possible.
View full abstract