My Opinion, Your Opinion – Do Community Norms and Perceptions Influence Farmers’ Fertiliser Practices?

Social norms and peer pressure can shape the (dis-)adoption of agricultural practices. In Indonesian rice farming communities, a common norm centres on the colour of rice plants, with some farmers valuing deep green leaves. Since leaf greenness correlates with nitrogen fertiliser inputs, this norm may encourage fertiliser overuse. We use a mixed-method approach to examine how social norms and peer pressure, measured as the perception that lower greenness levels trigger community gossip, and farmers’ knowledge about fertiliser requirements influence nitrogen fertiliser application. Our quantitative analysis shows that fertiliser use is strongly correlated with farmers’ own knowledge: those unaware that fertiliser stops improving yields beyond a certain point apply considerably more. Our qualitative evidence confirms that gossiping about less green plants is present in many communities. However, the quantitative analysis provides no evidence of a significant relationship between perceived gossip and actual fertiliser application. Using a survey experiment, we find that priming farmers with greenness norms affects stated fertiliser decisions only for a subset of farmers. This suggests that while social norms around plant appearance exist, farmers’ decisions depend more strongly on their own knowledge than on social norms and peer pressure.