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Abstract

This article seeks to determine farmers’ willingness to apply slurry acidification during spreading. Slurry acidification is a novel technique to reduce ammonia emissions, which has been pioneered in Denmark. In an online discrete choice survey of German livestock farmers, the respondents were asked to choose between different policy schemes to promote the use of acidification techniques and the status quo. The support schemes were characterised by the following attributes: cost share, expected emission reduction as well as reliefs from, and tightenings of, the German Fertilizer Ordinance. In addition, the character-istics of farmers and farms were elicited. The data were estimated using a mixed logit model. The esti-mated probability of farmers to choose a support scheme is 89 %. All policy variables are significant for acceptance and show the expected signs. Emission reduction is important to farmers and increases the chances of participation in a support scheme significantly. Furthermore, the cost share offered and the exemption from the requirement to incorporate slurry immediately after spreading have a significantly positive impact on farmers’ willingness to participate. By contrast, the higher the nitrogen load factor by which the extra nitrogen in the slurry must be counted in a farmer’s fertilizer planning (a provision of the German Fertilizer Ordinance), the lower the probability of participation. Concerning farm and farmer characteristics, farmers with grazing livestock show lower acceptance as do sow holders. Older farmers and better educated farmers are more likely to participate.

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