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Asian Journal of Agriculture and Development (AJAD) - Call for papers!

Farmers' preferences for improvement of rice straw management in Mekong Delta, Vietnam

(Vietnam), Doctor of Philosophy in Agricultural Economics (University of the Philippines Los Baños)

Dissertation Abstract:

The study aimed to analyze the current situation of rice straw management practices in terms of quantity of rice straw subject to open burning and potential quantity of air pollutant emissions in the Mekong Delta; determine the factors affecting the farmers' actual rice straw management practices; analyze the farmers' perception about rice straw management; and determine farmers' preference for alternative designs of improving rice straw management and their willingness to accept subsidy for improvement. The study was conducted in four provinces in the Mekong Delta, namely, Kien Giang, An Giang, Dong Thap, and Can Tho based on a survey of 543 farmer respondents. The results showed that burning of loose straw and stubbles after harvest was the predominant practice in the area ranging from 43.68% of the farmers in Autumn-Winter season to 83.06% in Winter-Spring season. With 60% of farmers in the Mekong Delta engaged in burning of rice straw after harvest, the estimated environmental cost of pollution would be US$ 33.71 million given a carbon price of US$ 80/tCO2. The choice experiment and mixed legit model estimation showed that a possible rice straw management design could include attributes of sustainable practices (field incorporation of rice straw, partial removal, and complete removal), medium and high availability of machinery for these practices, farmers' organization and local government as mechanism for implementing the rice straw management program, and government subsidy to farmers to encourage them to adopt sustainable rice straw management. These findings are useful in designing possible improvements in rice straw management in order to achieve proper utilization of rice straw and thus minimize pollution from the prevailing practice of burning rice straw.