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Chemical Use Reductions in Urban Fringe Agriculture

Reference Type
Conference Proceedings (Chapter)

"The impact of the urban fringe environment on sustainable practices, especially the use of chemicals, is an issue of considerable debate in the land use scientific community. On one hand, farmers are expected to intensify chemical use to make up for lost productivity as a result of the adverse effects of suburbanization. On the other hand, one expects that suburban farmers would utilize less chemicals in reaction to concerns from neighbors and the heightened regulatory environment in urban fringe communities. This paper estimates empirical logit demand models of reduced insecticide, fungicide, herbicide and fertilizer usage, as well as a cumulative binary dependent variable (CBDV) model of reductions in aggregate chemical use. Results suggest the importance of farm structural factors and individual farmer characteristics in decision making about the uses of chemicals in an urban fringe environment. Fertilizer demand appears to be less affected by these factors, suggesting an inherent uniqueness and possibly greater reliance on market factors in fertilizer demand and decision making. A novel finding of the study is that larger and more commercial farms, farmers that have experienced right-to-farm conflicts, and farmers in areas where strict environmental regulations exist, tend to be more judicious in chemical usage. Another interesting finding is that farmers tend to intensify chemical use in an attempt to accommodate lost productivity and profitability from deer damage. Overall, the results suggest the importance of farm structural factors on chemical reduction choices." [Abstract from Conference Program and Book of Abstracts]

[Concurrent Session I-C: Peri-Urban Agriculture]

[Presented at "Emerging Issues Along Urban/Rural Interfaces: Linking Science and Society", a conference held March 13-16, 2005 in Atlanta, GA (US)]

Authors
S. Adelaja, K. Sullivan, R. Govindasamy
Date Published
2005
Journal/Conference
Emerging Issues Along Urban/Rural Interfaces: Linking Science and Society
Editor
D. Laband, et. al.
Publisher
Auburn University Center for Forest Sustainability
Publisher Location
Auburn, AL (US)
Sub-Topics
Interface, Modeling (economic)
State(s)/Region(s)
International
Keywords
Urban-rural, Leaf characteristics, Chemicals, Interface, WUI, Agriculture
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