Understanding Farmers’ Stated Preference for Gold-Mined Degraded Land Restoration

Abstract

Gold mining activities cause environmental issues and lead to farmland reduction, which calls for the restoration of degraded land. Therefore, this study investigates the influencing factors for farmers’ decision to pay for the gold-mined restoration process to have access to more fertile land and to improve the environment.  Two hundred forty farmers were randomly selected for the study. The survey design follows a contingent valuation method, and logistic regression is used to analyze the data. The results show that 92.5% of the farmers are willing to pay an average premium of ₦250,313.42 for the land restoration process. Their decision to pay for the restoration process is influenced by their awareness of the negative impacts of land degradation, the size of arable land owned, membership in the cooperative association, higher education, higher income, access to credit, and being male. These findings show the importance of awareness, financial factors, and socioeconomic factors in the land restoration process. Thus, policy design should focus on them for efficient policy intervention to restore degraded land, which could be in the form of awareness creation and financial support.