| Abstract: | Autumn-sown cereals place pressure on post-harvest operations, particularly straw disposal. Burning is often a private solution but imposes external costs on others. Policy options to control burning include an outright ban, standard regulations, pollution taxes and transferable discharge rights. The effects of such options on farm income are assessed for an East of England cereals farm using a Linear Programming model. Results are sensitive to assumed straw yields, the market price of straw, and incorporation costs. Transferable discharge rights offer a flexible and efficient instrument to regulate straw burning at a non-zero level. |
