Factors Influencing Selected Tennessee Farmers' Attitudes and Willingness to Enter Voluntary Carbon Market
Abstract
The increased volumes of CO2 and other greenhouse gases released by the burning of fossil fuels, land clearing, agriculture, and other human activities since the industrialization era are a very likely cause of the current rise in Earth's average temperature. In an effort to offset the amount of carbon emitted into the atmosphere, biological carbon sequestration is considered as a long-term storage for carbon dioxide in mitigating global warming. The carbon market has been created to facilitate the buying and selling of the rights to emit greenhouse gases such as carbon. Rewarding farmers with financial incentive for sustainable practices that improve the structure of the soil will help in offsetting carbon emissions. If farmers were to benefit from available financial incentives associated with building carbon, he /she should be aware of soil carbon sequestration, various practices that help build carbon, types of incentives available, economic incentives (price) and how to apply for these incentives. The purpose of the study was to bridge the knowledge gap between researchers, farmers, and policy makers for the development of the voluntary carbon market. The study was conducted using primary data collected from selected small farmers in three counties of Tennessee. The results of the study indicated that age and level of education of farmer were insignificant variables, unrelated to willingness to participate by farmers in the carbon market. But the sample in this study was not randomly selected, and respondents may not be representative of overall small farmers in Tennessee. Previous studies indicate that different segments of landowner population have different goals for their land and may behave differently. Also there may be other factors that may have bearing on how farmers behave. Therefore, a larger study using a more representative sample with more variables that may impact farmer's willingness to participate may be conducted.
Subject Area
Agricultural economics
Recommended Citation
Derek L Allen,
"Factors Influencing Selected Tennessee Farmers' Attitudes and Willingness to Enter Voluntary Carbon Market"
(2011).
ETD Collection for Tennessee State University.
Paper AAI1497829.
https://digitalscholarship.tnstate.edu/dissertations/AAI1497829