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Three Essays in Nonmarket Valuation: Producers' Willingness to Supply Switchgrass; Smallholder Irrigation Farmers' and Residents' Preferences for Groundwater Protection
Abstract
This dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay estimates producers’ willingness to grow switchgrass for biomass on marginal land or to lease it out for that purpose in the Midwest region of the United States using a contingent valuation method. The results show that potential producers in this region require relatively large payments to produce or lease out marginal lands for switchgrass production. The estimated means of willingness to accept to produce and to lease range from $197 per acre to $285 per acre which are well above the average 2013 Conservation Reserve Program rental rates ($145 per acre) and the average 2014 net revenue potential producers expected from their marginal lands ($166/acre). The second essay estimates smallholder irrigation farmers’ preferences for groundwater protection under the Vea irrigation scheme in Ghana using a double-bounded contingent valuation method (CVM) with two scenarios (environment and health). It estimates farmers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for fertilizer that protects groundwater quality, and also investigates impacts of information on WTP in a developing country setting. It finds that farmers who received the health scenario are willing to pay more than those who received the environmental scenario. The mean WTP from the health scenario subsample is about GHC 79 per acre, while that from the environmental scenario subsample is about GHC 57 per acre. The results also show that the household’s primary water source significantly impacts WTP to protect groundwater. The third essay estimates WTP of residents of the Bongo district in Ghana to protect groundwater from nitrate contamination using the double-bounded CVM. The survey questionnaire elicited WTP from two subsamples to test for conditional cooperation as a situation under which welfare can be maximized in the protection of groundwater by residents and farmers. The results show that residents are conditionally cooperative in their WTP responses, suggesting that the free-rider problem may not occur in the protection of groundwater in the area. The mean WTP from the conditional cooperation subsample is 68.60 pesewas and is higher than that of the mean WTP from the subsample without conditional cooperation which is 63.74 pesewas.
Subject Area
Agricultural economics
Recommended Citation
Alhassan, Mustapha, "Three Essays in Nonmarket Valuation: Producers' Willingness to Supply Switchgrass; Smallholder Irrigation Farmers' and Residents' Preferences for Groundwater Protection" (2017). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI10288167.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI10288167