Die Bodenkultur - Journal for Land Management, Food and Environment

A. Fichtinger:

The Amount of Money Spent on Mineral Fertiliser in Relation to Selected Factors of Influence

Summary

The paper designes hypothesises concerning relations between the factors of influence on the amount of money spent on mineral fertiliser by farmers. The theoretical model follows the LISREL-approach of causal analysis and is tested by means of empirical collected data. Besides economical, technical and natural factors of influence psychosocial factors neglected by the previous literature are included in the design. Additionally, not only exogenous variables are considered but causal relations between endogenous variables influencing the target variable as well. The analysis rejects the designed model as a whole but accepts on the other side some of the developed hypotheses on a regional level. Above all in tillage-farming regions technical and economical factors influence the amount of money spent on mineral fertiliser. In stock-farming regions the farmers attitude towards mineral fertiliser and locus of control of reinforcement are considerable, too. Key words:  mineral fertiliser, Lisrel-approach, model design, use of mineral fertiliser.