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The impact of toilet revolution on fertilizer usages in rural China

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  • Zhong, Zhen
  • Zhong, Xiaoting
  • Chen, Wei
  • Guo, Jun
  • Gu, Yangyang

Abstract

China’s traditional self-sufficient economy has maintained a close relationship between agricultural production and rural livelihoods for thousands of years, with human waste playing a crucial role in closing the nutrient cycle. However, the recent toilet revolution program in rural China, spurred by significant government investments in sanitation infrastructure, presents a potential disruption to this age-old nutrient cycle. Leveraging an extensive panel dataset from China’s official Fixed Observation Rural Survey (FORS) spanning 2009 to 2018 focusing on 21,747 farming households, we estimate the impact of adopting indoor sanitary toilets on household decisions regarding manure and chemical fertilizer usages using a two-way fixed effects (TWFE) approach. We further utilize the toilet revolution policy implementation at the village level as the instrumental variable for individual having toilets. We find that the introduction of indoor sanitation facilities leads to a notable decrease in both the probability of manure application and the amount of manure used by households, while concurrently increasing the chemical fertilizer usage and in particular the urea usage. Our study underscores the intricate interplay between advancements in rural sanitation, agricultural production decision-making, and the unintended environmental consequences arising from improved living standards in developing countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhong, Zhen & Zhong, Xiaoting & Chen, Wei & Guo, Jun & Gu, Yangyang, 2025. "The impact of toilet revolution on fertilizer usages in rural China," 2025 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2025, Denver, CO 360737, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaea25:360737
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.360737
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Beckman, Jayson & Livingston, Michael, 2012. "Effects of Manure Use and Use Restrictions on Variable Production Costs and Net Incomes for United States Corn Producers," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(1), pages 83-97, February.
    2. repec:hal:journl:hal-04627029 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Shuqin Jin & Bin Zhang & Bi Wu & Dongmei Han & Yu Hu & Chenchen Ren & Chuanzhen Zhang & Xun Wei & Yan Wu & Arthur P. J. Mol & Stefan Reis & Baojing Gu & Jie Chen, 2021. "Decoupling livestock and crop production at the household level in China," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 4(1), pages 48-55, January.
    4. Prabhu L. Pingali, 1997. "From Subsistence to Commercial Production Systems: The Transformation of Asian Agriculture," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 79(2), pages 628-634.
    5. Beckman, Jayson F. & Livingston, Michael J., 2012. "Effects of Manure Use and Use Restrictions on Variable Production Costs and Net Incomes for U.S. Corn Producers," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 44(01), pages 1-15, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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