recommendations
are proposed to help induce farmers
to switch from poor technology waste management
options to clean, biogas technology.
1. A basic principle in environmental economics is
that taxes can provide an incentive for polluters to
adopt socially efficient rates of pollution. In effect,
these taxes have changed the pattern of private net
benefits so that they are the same as community
net benefits. A charge based on the social costs of
disposal is not going to be feasible. It would require
the authorities to evaluate the waste produced
by each alternative and charge according to
the different items identified. In the case of pig
waste disposal in Thailand, a single charge per
tonne should be established for all disposal methods,
except for biogas production as it is an environmentally
“clean” method.
2. In principle, it would be possible to apply a pollution
charge as a means of “internalizing” the externalities,
assuming that some waste management
technologies (like the fertilizer and deep pond
methods) do have adverse environmental effects
such as bad odors and water pollution. Instead of
applying the charge explicitly to odors or water
pollution damage (which would be difficult in
practice), we could consider a charge on the volume
of waste handled by the more polluting technologies.
This could be calculated in terms of the
number of animals on the farm with a charge levied
per animal. For example, a farmer converting
all his pig waste to fertilizer with adverse environmental
effects might be subject to the charge
whereas a biogas producer would be exempt.
3. Inducing farmers to switch from low-cost technologies
to costly biogas technology remains a big
challenge for policy-makers. The major obstacle
to the success of the biogas system is the lack of
access to a market. One of suggestions from the
focus groups was to establish a centralized facility
that would collect either the biogas or pig waste.
However, it would be costly if the farms are located
far from one another.
4. If the funds raised from the charge/tax (from 1
above) were “earmarked”, they could be used to
subsidise the installation of biogas facilities on
farms which have not yet converted to biogas.
This would be sufficient to induce farmers to
switch to biogas production rather than continuing
to use cheaper, but more environmentally polluting
technologies such as fertilizer and deep pond.
5. The government should implement policies to
promote the production of renewable energy as
well as provide the necessary technical and financial
support to encourage the farmers to install
biogas systems, especially those from medium and