Farmers’ perceived cost of land use restrictions: A simulated purchasing decision using discrete choice experiments

Abstract

This paper reports on the findings from discrete choice experiments designed to estimate farmers’ perceived costs of land use restrictions, i.e. crop restrictions, additional fertilizing restrictions, and usage restrictions, as opposed to having no such restrictions. To this end, hypothetical land purchasing decisions were simulated based on the information about productivity, lot size, distance to other land, driving time to home, land use restrictions, and price. Farmers from the Campine area (Belgium) were invited to participate in the survey as the agricultural land in this region still faces the effects of historical heavy metal contamination resulting in crop restrictions. For identical pieces of land, we estimate the perceived cost, calculated as a change in the consumer surplus due to having a land use restriction, to be about 46,000€/ha for the crop restriction, 50,000€/ha for the usage restriction, and 70,000€/ha for the fertilizing restrictions. Assuming this cost to represent a perpetuity, then with a discount rate of 5% the yearly fixed costs respectively equal about 2300€/ha, 2500€/ha, and 3500€/ha.