Efficient Waste? Why Farmers Over-Apply Nutrients and the Implications for Policy Design

Glenn Sheriff

Review of Agricultural Economics, 2005, vol. 27, issue 4, 542-557

Abstract: Understanding why farmers over-apply fertilizer is essential to designing effective agro-environmental policy. If farmers are simply inefficient, possibilities exist for simultaneously improving farm profits and the environment. If not, costly trade-offs are necessary. This article examines why farmer perceptions of agronomic advice, input substitutability, hidden opportunity costs, uncertainty, and risk aversion can make it economically rational to “waste” fertilizer by applying it above agronomically recommended rates. I use this information to evaluate the relative merits of policy responses such as insurance, education, cost-shares, regulation, taxes, and land retirement. Copyright 2005, Oxford University Press.

Date: 2005
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (65)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/j.1467-9353.2005.00263.x (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
Journal Article: Efficient Waste? Why Farmers Over-Apply Nutrients and the Implications for Policy Design (2005)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:revage:v:27:y:2005:i:4:p:542-557

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Review of Agricultural Economics from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ) and Christopher F. Baum ().