Gender, social networks, and the use of organic fertilizers toward sustainable agriculture in suburban villages of Central Vietnam

Farmland degradation caused by excessive use of agrochemicals is a serious environmental concern, and thus the use of organic fertilizers is encouraged for sustainable agriculture in Vietnam. However, the adoption of organic fertilizers among farming households has been slow, spontaneous, and fragmented. The absence of credible information and advisory sources is reported to be a critical constraint. The sharing of information and experiences among social networks is expected to play an important role in overcoming this constraint, although strong causal evidence remains scarce. Therefore, this study employs an instrumental variable approach with observational village‐census data to identify the causal impacts of social networks on the adoption of organic fertilizers and explores the underlying information‐sharing mechanism within social networks, providing rich information about existing social networks for both men and women separately. The estimation results show that in farming households, the wife's social networks have a positive and significant effect on the diffusion of organic fertilizers. Our findings highlight the role of information exchange, experience sharing, and agricultural collaboration among groups of women in enhancing pro‐environmental agricultural practices in suburban villages of Central Vietnam.