Farmers' Use Intention Toward Environmentally Friendly Fertilizer: A Case Study of Bio- Concentrated Liquid Fertilizers

In recent years, in the context of increasing environmental concerns in Japan, a growing number of consumers are more likely to purchase environmentally friendly agricultural products and foods, which gives a positive meaning for farmers to use environmentally friendly technology for agricultural production, such as using environmentally friendly fertilizers. A bio-concentrated liquid fertilizer (Bio-CLF), an innova-tive and environmentally friendly fertilizer derived from the current methane fermentation digested liquid fertilizers, was developed. However, producers' evaluation of Bio-CLF, especially the intention of farmers to use Bio-CLF, has not yet been clarified. To fill this gap, a logistic regression analysis was used in this study to analyze farmers' use intention toward Bio-CLF. The data were collected through an Internet survey administered in Japan by a market research company, and the final sample size was determined to be 263. The results indicated that farmers who had experience in using methane fermentation digested liquid ferti-lizer, and farmers with more knowledge of SDGs, were found to have a high intention to use Bio-CLF. Additionally, when compared with other management style farmers, outdoor vegetable farmers were found to be more likely to use Bio-CLF. Based on these results, we propose sales strategies for future Bio-CLF sales development.