Determinants of Farmers' Willingness to Pay for Attributes of Improved Variety Maize Seed in Western Mid-Hills of Nepal
Journal Title: International Journal of Agriculture Innovations and Research - Year 2018, Vol 7, Issue 2
Abstract
Development of open pollinated improved varieties and make them available for seed multiplication and distribution among maize growers is the important intervention made by public sector maize research program in Nepal. Twenty improved maize varieties has been developed and most of them carry farmer preferred attributes for different agro ecological conditions. However, the coverage of such varieties is still low. This is mostly due to less focus on multiplication and marketing of improved variety maize seed with proper pricing strategy based on farmer’s willingness to pay. Questionnaire survey was conducted among two hundred households selected through purposive random sampling in western mid hills of Nepal to assess the determinants of farmer’s willingness to pay and their preferred attributes for improved variety maize seed. Secondary data also used and focus group discussions were carried out as required. Farmers ranking of seven promising varieties was carried out based on their preferred attributes. Contingent valuation method with five price bands was used to estimate the farmer’s willingness to pay for improved variety maize seed. The Tobit regression model was employed with dependent variable, farmer’s willingness to pay for improved variety maize seed to determine the effects of explanatory variables. The result showed that educational level of the household head, cultivated land holding size, availability of agriculture training, frequency of contact with extension agent and awareness about market price of product were positively and significantly contributing to the probability of willingness to pay whereas, availability of farm worker i.e. number of economically active household member and distance from nearest road head has negative effect. The major implication of this study is to design the policy and programs for the development of new improved varieties of maize with aggressive and farmer friendly marketing strategy, together with private sector involvement to reap the benefits of improved maize varieties, and get return on research investment. Farmer’s willingness to pay showed that there is enough room for private seed enterprises participation if proper marketing strategy is employed to promote improved variety maize seed among growers. However, there is still need to develop nonprofit community based seed production and distribution system and at the same time provide price subsidy to reach maize growers with improved variety maize quality seed characterizing, small holders, residing in remote areas, low level of education, sporadic extension contacts and untrained in modern agriculture production system. Efforts are also needed to enhance farmer’s willingness to pay through promotion of positively contributing variables.
Authors and Affiliations
Rajendra Prasad Mishra, et al.
Keywords
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