Types of people needed to promote agricultural use of sewage sludge in the region ～ A Study from Innovation Diffusion Theory ～

<p>　To build a low-carbon, recycling society, it is vital to promote the agricultural and energy uses of sewage sludge. This paper focuses on three regions, Saga City, Iwamizawa City, and Akita Prefecture, that received the “Junkan no Michi Award” after the successful implementation of agricultural use of sewage sludge. We interviewed key persons and farmers in the diffusion process in Saga City, compared the outcomes of the interviews and questionnaires with the diffusion process in Rogers' innovation theory and developed a hypothesis regarding types of people needed to promote agricultural use of sewage sludge. Subsequently, the applicability of the hypothesis was tested in Iwamizawa City and Akita Prefecture.</p><p>　It was observed that while the diffusion process shares some similarities with Rogers' theory, it also has some characteristics unique to sewage sludge fertilizers, such as effective support from public institutions . Further, in regions where sewage sludge was successfully diffused, there were "altruistic" supermen and "evangelists" who sympathized with them and played a major role in the expansion of diffusion , depending on the stage of diffusion . The questionnaire also revealed that general farmers were most interested in the economic benefits of sewage sludge fertilizer and were relatively less interested in environmental issues.</p>