Pesticide Avoidance: Results From a Sri Lankan Study with Health and Environmental Policy Implications

In this paper the contingent valuation method (CVM) is used to elicit bids/values to avoid direct exposure to pesticides and the resulting illnesses among subsistence farmers in a developing country, namely Sri Lanka. Farmers using pesticides on their farms suffer from short-term as well as long-term illnesses. Deaths from direct exposure to pesticides are not uncommon. The CVM is used to determine the yearly value to an average farmer of avoiding the costs of direct exposure to pesticides and to calculate the pesticide cost scenarios for the entire country. The last section of the paper examines the factors that influence the willingness to pay (WTP) to avoid direct exposure to pesticides and the resulting illnesses and discuss the health and environmental policy implications stemming from the regression analysis.

A WTP Model Showing the Relationships Between Three Approaches For Pollution

In this paper, a simple willingness to pay (WTP) model that shows the theoretical relationships among three valuation approaches that can be used to measure changes in health resulting from pollution is developed. The three valuation approaches considered are the contingent valuation (CV), cost of illness (COI) and the defensive behaviour approaches. After showing the relationships between the three valuation approaches, the model demonstrates that the CV approach exceeds the COI and the defensive behaviour approaches. The theoretical results are supported by field survey data. The pollution referred to in this paper is direct exposure to pesticides by farmers during handling and spraying on their farms.