Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-g7rbq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-29T17:15:49.277Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Marginal Abatement Costs of Reducing Groundwater-N Pollution with Intensive and Extensive Farm Management Choices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2016

Emmanuel K. Yiridoe  and
Alfons Weersink
Emmanuel K. Yiridoe
Affiliation:
Department of Economics and Business Management, Nova Scotia Agricultural College
Alfons Weersink
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural Economics and Business, University of Guelph
Get access

Abstract

Cost-effectiveness is an important consideration in evaluating choices for meeting environmental quality objectives. Estimated crop yield response functions and the associated groundwater-nitrate pollution production functions were used to evaluate the optimal N fertilization and on-farm abatement costs for alternative cropping systems, with management choices at both the intensive and extensive margins. The cost-effective corn production system, which meets the Health Canada standard for nitrates with the highest returns ($278 ha–1) and lowest on-farm abatement cost ($248 ha–1), was a four-year corn-corn-soybean-wheat rotation under conventional tillage. At contaminant limits above the Health Canada standard, the cost-effective wheat cropping system shifted from a soybean-wheat rotation under no-tillage to a corn-soybean-wheat rotation under no-tillage.

Type
Articles
Information
Agricultural and Resource Economics Review , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , October 1998 , pp. 169 - 185
Copyright
Copyright © 1998 Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Antle, J.M., and Just, R.E. 1991. “Effects of Commodity Program Structure on Resource Use and the Environment.” In Commodity and Resource Policies in Agricultural Systems, ed. Just, R.E. and Bockstael Sweeney, N. New York: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Batie, S. 1988. “Agriculture as the Problem: The Case of Groundwater Contamination.” Choices 3: 4–7.Google Scholar
Boggess, W., McGrann, J., Boehlje, M., and Heady, E.O. 1979. “Farm-Level Impacts of Alternative Soil Loss Control Policies.” Soil and Water Conservation 34: 177–83.Google Scholar
Burton, D.L., Younie, M.F., Beauchamp, E.G., Kachanoski, R.G., Brown, D.M., and Elrick, D.E. 1993. Alternate Crop Management Practices and Nitrate Contamination of Groundwater with Sandy Soils Used for Tobacco Production. Report prepared for Tobacco Diversification Plan/Alternate Enterprise Initiative Development Branch, Agriculture Canada, and Supplies and Services Canada. Ottawa, Canada.Google Scholar
Fleming, R.J. 1992. Rural Well Water Survey, Huron County—1991. Report to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. Toronto, Canada.Google Scholar
Frank, R.N., Chapman, N., and Johnson, R. 1991. “Survey of Farm Wells for Nutrients and Minerals.” Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 47: 146–51.Google Scholar
Fraser, P., and Chilvers, C. 1981. “Health Aspects of Nitrate in Drinking Water.” Science of the Total Environment 18: 103–16.Google Scholar
Goody, J., and O'Hara, S. 1995. Economic Theory for Environmentalists. Delray Beach, Fla.: St. Lucie Press.Google Scholar
Halvin, J.L., Kissel, D.E., Maddux, L.D., Classen, M.M., and Long, J.H. 1990. “Crop Rotation and Tillage Effects on Soil Carbon and Nitrogen.” Soil Science Society of America Journal 54: 448–52.Google Scholar
Helfand, G.E., and House, B.W. 1995. “Regulating Nonpoint Source Pollution under Heterogeneous Conditions.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 77: 1024–32.Google Scholar
Howard, K., and Falck, H. 1986. “Interrelationships of Land Use, Soil Conditions and Groundwater Contamination near Lindsay, Ontario.” Canadian Water Resources Journal 11: 111–25.Google Scholar
Huang, W-Y., Shank, D., and Hewitt, T.I. 1996. “On-Farm Costs of Reducing Residual Nitrogen on Cropland Vulnerable to Nitrate Leaching.” Review of Agricultural Economics 18: 325–39.Google Scholar
Johnson, S.L., Adams, R.M., and Perry, G.M. 1991. “The On-Farm Costs of Reducing Groundwater Pollution.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 73: 1063–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, R.P., Lybecker, D.W., Regmi, A., and Swinton, S.M. 1993. “Bioeconomic Models of Crop Production Systems: Design, Development, and Use.” Review of Agricultural Economics 15: 389–401.Google Scholar
Lee-Han, H., and Hatton, B. 1991. Survey of Bacterial and Nitrate Contamination of Private Well Water. Report prepared for the Regional Municipality of Waterloo. Waterloo, Ontario.Google Scholar
McSweeney, W.T., and Shortle, J.S. 1990. “Probabilistic Cost Effectiveness in Agricultural Nonpoint Pollution Control.” Southern Journal of Agricultural Economics 22: 95–104.Google Scholar
Metherell, A.K., Harding, L.A., Cole, C.V., and Parton, W.J. 1993. “CENTURY Soil Organic Matter Model Environment.” Technical Documentation. Agroecosystem version 4.0 Great Plains System Research Unit Technical Report no. 4. Fort Collins, Colorado: USDA-ARS.Google Scholar
Nuefeld, D. 1987. “Groundwater: Its Management and Protection in Ontario.” Ontario Legislative Library Paper no. 58. Toronto, Canada: Legislative Library.Google Scholar
Olsen, R.J., Hensler, R.F., Attoe, O.J., Witel, S.A., and Peterson, L.A. 1970. “Fertilizer Nitrogen and Crop Rotation in Relation to Movement of Nitrogen through Soil Profiles.” Soil Science Society of America Journal 34: 448–52.Google Scholar
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA). 1994. “1994 Crop Budgets.” Publication 60. Toronto: OMAFRA.Google Scholar
Porter, M.E., and Van der Linde, C. 1995. “Toward a New Conception of the Environment-Competitiveness Relationship.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 9: 97–118.Google Scholar
Randhir, T.O., and Lee, J.G. 1997. “Economic and Water Quality Impacts of Reducing Nitrogen and Pesticide Use in Agriculture.” Agricultural and Resource Economics Review 26: 39–51.Google Scholar
Rudolph, D., and Goss, M. 1993. Ontario Farm Groundwater Quality Survey: Summer 1992. Report prepared for Agriculture Canada. Ottawa: Agriculture Canada.Google Scholar
Rudolph, D., Goss, M., Graham, A., Kachanoski, G., Scafe, M., Aspinall, D., Van den Broek, B., Clegg, S., Barry, D., and Stimson, J. 1992. Ontario Farm Groundwater Quality Survey: Winter 1991/92. Report prepared for Agriculture Canada. Ottawa: Agriculture Canada.Google Scholar
Segerson, K. 1988. “Uncertainty and Incentives for Nonpoint Pollution Control.” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 15: 87–98.Google Scholar
Sullivan, J.B., Gonzales, M., Krieger, G.R., and Runge, C.F. 1991. “Health Related Hazards of Agriculture.” Staff Paper P91-13. Department of Agricultural Economics and Applied Economics, University of Minnesota.Google Scholar
Swinton, S.M., and Clark, D.S. 1994. “Farm-Level Evaluation Canada: Agroecosystem Health Project, University of Guelph.Google Scholar
Woods, C.W., and Edwards, J.H. 1992. “Agroecosystem Management Effect on Carbon and Nitrogen.” Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 39: 123–38.Google Scholar
Yiridoe, E.K. 1997. “Bio-Economics of Agricultural Nonpoint Source Pollution Control: Nitrates in Southwestern Ontario.” Ph.D. diss, Department of Agricultural Economics and Business, University of Guelph, Canada.Google Scholar
Yiridoe, E.K., Weersink, A., Roy, R.C., and Swanton, C.J. 1993. “Economic Analysis of Alternative Cropping Systems for a Bean/Wheat Rotation on Light-Textured Soils.” Canadian Journal of Plant Service 73: 405–15.Google Scholar
Yiridoe, E.K., Voroney, R.P., and Weersink, A. 1997. “Impact of Alternative Farm Management Practices on Nitrogen Pollution of Groundwater: Evaluation and Application of CENTURY Model.” Journal of Environmental Quality 26(5): 1255–63.Google Scholar