Exploring the Farm Level Opportunity Cost for Protecting Environment: Evidence from Turkey

The study spatially explored the farm-level opportunity cost of protecting environment and examined the sufficiency level of government support for covering farm level of opportunity cost in TR83 region of Turkey. By using questionnaires, research data were collected from randomly selected 334 farms that participated in Environmentally Friendly Agricultural Land Protection Program (EFALP) and purposively selected 27 conventional farms. Farm-level opportunity cost of protecting environment was calculated via subtracting gross revenue calculated under condition of protecting environment from the gross revenue calculated under conventional ones. Gross revenue under conventional condition and under condition of protecting environment was elicited by using the MOTAD linear approximation of the quadratic programming. Sufficiency of government support for protecting environment was revealed through taking the difference between farm-level opportunity cost for protecting environment and total government support payment for environmental consideration to farm included in EFALP. Research results showed that government support paid to sample farms did not cover opportunity cost of farm for protecting environment in TR83 region. Considering spatially differentiation of farm-level opportunity cost for protecting environment when policy makers determine the quantity of government support may positively enhance the dissemination of EFALP programs and reduce the adverse effects of agricultural practices.