Iranian faremers’ willingness to improve water quality in the Zayande River

The Zayande River is the largest on the central plateau of Iran and is contaminated by heavy metals from industries and fertilizers and pesticides from agriculture. We measure farmers’ willingness to accept (WTA) a payment to install riparian buffer strips that could curtail pollution.  Environmental valuation studies are rare in Iran and, more specifically, policy makers have no economic research like that provided here to help them create effective policies to address the problem.  Precautions are taken in administering a survey to account for unique difficulties associated with contingent valuation methods when applied in a developing setting.  For example, the WTA questions were asked in the context of a nutrient trading program payment vehicle since it is both a private and public source of funding; recent research shows that farmers in Pakistan are sensitive to the source.  Farmers willing to participate would accept 835,300 Rials ($22.58). Almost 40% said they would not participate for the following reasons: they were unfamiliar with these plans, concerned about instability in polices, or uncertain about the future.