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

By G. Sheriff. 2005

204 citations recorded by the source corpus.

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.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, General Health Professions, Soil Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/49f22167b521deb4c4313cf595fc35c5cd5b963c

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Economics and Econometrics

1. Rebecca L. Schewe
2. M. McDermott
3. D. Stuart

In General Health Professions

1. Rebecca L. Schewe
2. M. McDermott
3. D. Stuart

In Soil Science

1. Rebecca L. Schewe
2. M. McDermott
3. D. Stuart

Citations in the corpus

• Reducing nitrogen fertilizer application as a climate change mitigation strategy: Understanding farmer decision-making and potential barriers to change in the US (2014, background): “These factors may include lack of faith in farm advisors or models, adding more fertilizer to address other nutrient limitations, and uncertainty regarding factors such as weather and soil conditions (Sheriff, 2005).”