Analyzing producers' willingness to pay for high quality irrigation water

Water is essential for life. Polluted water has negative effects on people either directly or indirectly. Direct effect can be seen when people consume drinking water for personal consumption. Indirect effect can be seen when polluted water effect the environment and production of producers. Turhal and Suluova are two main examples for indirect effect of polluted water. As a result of negative externality caused by intensive beef cattle production the irrigation water of both regions are polluted and this situation either decrease yield of some vegetables or makes their cultivation impossible. Thus, there is less quality product, lower return, and polluted environment. That is why; the main objective of this study is to analyze the producer's willingness to pay for higher quality irrigation water and analyzing the factors that effecting their payment decisions. A survey technique was implemented via face to face interview with 130 randomly selected producers. The data was analyzed using tobit and Heckman sample selection model. According to the result the producer who is male, from Turhal region, has more vegetable land, and polluted water is willing to pay more for increasing the quality of irrigation water.