The impact of collective and individual drip irrigation systems on fertilizer use intensity and land productivity: Evidence from rural Xinjiang, China

Abstract

Drip irrigation is claimed to save water and fertilizers and improve land productivity. Considerable recent evidence supports the water-saving effect of drip irrigation techniques, but little attention has been given to the effect on fertilizer savings and land productivity improvement. This study examines the effects of collective and individual drip irrigation (CDI and IDI, respectively) on fertilizer use intensity and land productivity. Using a multinomial endogenous switching treatment regression and a survey dataset collected in Awati County, Xinjiang, we found that (1) on average, CDI reduces fertilizer use intensity by 10.31%, but IDI increases it by 5.57%; and (2) compared to IDI, CDI improves land productivity by more than 13.65%. Moreover, based on quantitative analyses, we found that (3) a high frequency of mutual adjustment of fertigation (an information coordination mechanism) gives CDI these advantages. The policy implications are to continue the top-down promotion of CDI technology and strengthen the information coordination on fertigation during the operation of CDI systems.