Farmers’ acceptance and willingness to pay for using treated wastewater in crop irrigation: A survey in western Iran

Zoherh Deh-Haghi, Asghar Bagheri, Zahra Fotourehchi and Christos A. Damalas

Agricultural Water Management, 2020, vol. 239, issue C

Abstract: The treatment of wastewater and its reuse for crop irrigation is one of the solutions for efficient management of the available water, but the acceptance of this type of recycled water by farmers and their willingness to use and pay for it has not been well documented, especially in Iran. Using the Contingent Valuation Method and a binary probit model, the current study assessed farmers’ acceptance of treated wastewater, i.e., their willingness to use and pay for applying treated wastewater in crop irrigation and explored factors affecting farmers’ willingness to use and pay in Khorramabad, Iran by proposing three qualities of wastewater and three prices for treated wastewater outlflow of the plant treatment. Physico-chemical tests of treated wastewater in the study area showed that it was suitable for surface irrigation of crops. Farmers’ willingness to use was differentiated based on treated wastewater quality, i.e., most farmers (91.7%) were willing to use treated wastewater of quality 1 (Q1), one third of the farmers (33.0%) were willing to use treated wastewater of quality 2 (Q2), whereas only 14.0% of the farmers were willing to use treated wastewater of quality 3 (Q3). Regarding willingness to pay, more than half of the farmers (56%) were willing to pay for treated wastewater in the price of 1,500,000 Rials per ha, which equals to fresh water irrigation charge. Less than one-fifth of the farmers (18.3%) were willing to pay at the highest bid level of 1,800,000 Rials per ha for the outflow of refinery, whereas the vast majority (91.7%) were willing to pay at the lowest bid level of 1,200,000 Rials per ha. Among socio-economic variables, the living place had the greatest impact on both willingness to use and pay, while the reuse of treated wastewater had the greatest impact on willingness to pay. Among knowledge-attitudinal variables, health risk perception and education had the greatest impact on willingness to use, while education and information had the greatest impact on willingness to pay. Use of appropriate incentives, such as price reduction of treated wastewater according to quality, testing physico-chemical properties and microbial contamination of treated wastewater, as well as extension training courses can be effective on promoting farmers’ willingness to use treated wastewater for crop irrigation.

Keywords: Irrigation; Khorramabad; Sewage treatment; Treated wastewater; Water scarcity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:239:y:2020:i:c:s037837741931786x

DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2020.106262

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