TITLE:
Determinants of Marketability for Organic Biomass Liquid Fertilizer from Human Waste in Da Nang City, Vietnam
AUTHORS:
Buixuan Hong, Yoshifumi Takahashi, Mitsuyasu Yabe
KEYWORDS:
Contingent Valuation Method (CVM), Double-Bound Dichotomous Choice, Organic Biomass Liquid Fertilizer (OBLF), Willingness to Pay (WTP), Marketability
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Environmental Protection,
Vol.8 No.11,
October
30,
2017
ABSTRACT: Recently, 90 tons of human waste per day are collected from private residences, offices, and public facilities in Da Nang City. Meanwhile, farmers in this region have to allocate 10% - 20% of rice sales for purchasing chemical fertilizer. Therefore, it is essential to be adopted more inexpensive organic fertilizer. To deal with these problems, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has signed a contract with Da Nang city government about human waste treatment and production of organic biomass liquid fertilizer (OBLF) in 2015. The aims of this project are to promote the use of OBLF in farming and improve public awareness of environmental protection. 530 respondents were interviewed at Hoa Vang districts of Da Nang city, and data was analyzed by Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) under double bounded dichotomous choice approach. The results have revealed that 436 respondents (82%) agreed to use OBLF. The farmers’ WTP depends on factors including household income, experience in using organic fertilizer, awareness of environment and training of organic fertilizer in the past. The estimated price for OBLF was 94,856 VND (4.0 USD)/ton. The cost that farmers paid for OBLF was lower than that of current available chemical fertilizers in Da Nang city. This proves that marketability seems to be existed for OBLF product in Da Nang city. From these findings, the government should have policies to support and subsidize the farmers to encourage them to use OBLF in a large scale of cultivation. Furthermore, establishment of a market to consume the organic products harvested from cultivated areas using OBLF is also recommended.