The Impact of Training on Beef Cattle Farmers’ Installation of Biogas Digesters

Qian Li, Jingjing Wang, Xiaoyang Wang and Yubin Wang
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Qian Li: College of Economics, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing 100048, China
Jingjing Wang: Department of Economics, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA
Yubin Wang: College of Economics and Management, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 9, 1-14

Abstract: Anaerobic digestion is one of the leading ways to manage livestock manure for energy production and move towards the target of carbon neutrality in the agricultural sector. Based on field survey data from China, a binary probit model and the propensity score matching method are employed to empirically examine the impact of agricultural training on livestock farmers’ installation of biogas digesters to manage livestock manure. The survey results show that beef cattle farmers in our study area are reluctant to install biogas digesters and the actual installation ratio of farmers is much lower than that that is willing to install. On the contrary, the beef cattle farmers are enthusiastic to participate in training (e.g., policy-oriented, technology-oriented, and field-based) related to sustainable farming practices. Regression results suggest that training can effectively promote the installation of biogas digesters, and with the increase of training intensity, the probability to install biogas digesters increases. We further find three other factors that affect farmers’ installation of biogas digesters: the education level of a farmer, which is one of the most important factors positively affecting the installation of biogas digesters; longer farming experience of a farmer, which can significantly promote biogas digester installation; and the farther away a farm is from town/urban centers, which means the more likely it is that the farmer will install biogas digesters. Policy implications are discussed.

Keywords: beef cattle; biogas digesters; manure management; training (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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