This report presents the results of a survey of 66 farmers in North Carolina to assess their perception of waste management technologies. The main objective of the project was to investigate farmers’ knowledge and their perception of these new technologies in comparison with the traditional lagoon/sprayfield system.

Introduction

Swine waste in North Carolina is managed predominantly through anaerobic lagoons and sprayfields. This waste management practice poses potential risks to human health and the environment through transport of pollutants via surface water, groundwater and the air. Recognizing these risks, in April 1999, a state plan was issued to identify and evaluate the need to convert lagoons and sprayfields to alternative technologies and it is expected that the lagoon-sprayfield technology will be phased out in due term. At the same time new federal regulation has been proposed focusing on the land application of animal waste at agronomic rates, which at present is largely unregulated. These proposed federal rules further undermine the future of the lagoon/sprayfield practice in North Carolina.

Work is currently underway in designing and assessing new technologies to replace the lagoon-sprayfield system but none are yet operational. Specifically, in July 2000 an Agreement was made between Smithfield Foods, Inc. and the Attorney General of North Carolina to provide $15 million for the development of ‘environmentally superior technologies’. Since then, research, development, and demonstration efforts have been initiated for several alternative technologies.

In this report we present the results of an exploratory study of farmers’ knowledge and perceptions of a series of alternative waste management systems. Farmers’ attitudes and perception are of crucial importance to successful R&D strategies. Many promising agricultural innovations and supporting policies have failed because they were inappropriate to farmers’ needs. To prevent such failures, a good understanding of the behavioral and operational constraints at the farm level is required. The contribution of economic analysis in addressing this state of affairs is that it can identify the behavioral factors and farm level constraints determining adoption. Lack of information, organizational characteristics (labor requirements) and management skills can be decisive in the adoption decision. Insights in these constraints can support developing ways to overcome them. Interview techniques are very useful in this respect as it enables an ex-ante assessment of the impact of farmers’ subjective perceptions and (lack of) knowledge on their choices among management practices.