Risk perceptions, importance rankings and a contingency valuation analysis: Results from a survey of Quebec producers on farm environmental management

This research studied Quebec producers' environmental attitudes and perceptions on environmentally friendly practices on farm, such as an environmental management system (EMS), using a survey. The contingency valuation method (CVM) was applied to elicit producers' mean willingness to accept compensation (WTA) of adopting an EMS on farm, in terms of the percentage of direct costs of implementation. Factors affecting the mean WTA were studied to examine their influences. The results show that Quebec producers adopt environmental practices extensively and face many challenges in agro-environmental management. The results also show that producers have mixed perceptions in the benefits and difficulties of environmentally friendly practices and a negative attitude towards environmental regulations. The mean WTA of Quebec producers is estimated at 79.73%. French speaking and English speaking farmers have the mean WTA of 79.91% and 71.75%, respectively. The regression analysis identifies that producers' knowledge level on EMS, their attitudes towards the benefits and difficulties, internet access and the use of a computer in farm management are significant variables with respect to the mean WTA.