Modeling Preference and Willingness to Pay for Drought Tolerance in Maize in Rural Zimbabwe

Maize plays a leading role in the food security of millions in southern Africa, yet it is highly vulnerable to the moisture stress brought about by the erratic rainfall patterns that characterize weather systems in the area. Developing and making drought-tolerant maize varieties available to farmers...

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Main Authors:	Kassie, Girma T., Abdulai, Awudu, Greene, William H., Shiferaw, Bekele, Abate, Tsedeke, Tarekegne, Amsal, Sutcliffe, Chloe
Format:	Journal Article
Published:	Elsevier 2018
Subjects:	DROUGHT DROUGHT-TOLERANT MAIZE CHOICE EXPERIMENT FOOD SECURITY RAINFED AGRICULTURE
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29322

id	okr-10986-29322
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-293222021-05-25T10:54:43Z Modeling Preference and Willingness to Pay for Drought Tolerance in Maize in Rural Zimbabwe Kassie, Girma T. Abdulai, Awudu Greene, William H. Shiferaw, Bekele Abate, Tsedeke Tarekegne, Amsal Sutcliffe, Chloe DROUGHT DROUGHT-TOLERANT MAIZE CHOICE EXPERIMENT FOOD SECURITY RAINFED AGRICULTURE Maize plays a leading role in the food security of millions in southern Africa, yet it is highly vulnerable to the moisture stress brought about by the erratic rainfall patterns that characterize weather systems in the area. Developing and making drought-tolerant maize varieties available to farmers in the region has thus long been a key goal on the regional development agenda. Farm-level adoption of these varieties, however, depends on local perceptions of the value they add, along with willingness to pay (WTP) for it. Focusing on Zimbabwe, this research aimed at estimating the implicit prices farmers are willing to pay for drought tolerance in maize compared to other preferred traits. Using a choice experiment framework, we generated 12,600 observations from a random sample of 1,400 households in communal areas within 14 districts of Zimbabwe. Taste parameters and heterogeneities were estimated using the generalized multinomial logit model (G-MNL). The results reveal drought tolerance, grain yield, covered cob tip, cob size, and semi-flint texture to be the most preferred traits by farm households in Zimbabwe. The WTP estimates show that farmers are willing to pay a premium for drought tolerance equal to 2.56, 7, 3.2, and 5 times higher than for an additional ton of yield per acre, bigger cob size, larger grain size, and covered cob tip, respectively. We suggest designing and implementing innovative ways of promoting DT maize along with awareness-raising activities to enhance contextual understandings of drought and drought risk to speed adoption of new DT maize varieties by risk-prone farming communities. Given the high level of rural literacy and the high rate of adoption of improved maize, trait-based promotion and marketing of varieties constitutes the right strategy. 2018-02-06T16:36:45Z 2018-02-06T16:36:45Z 2017-06 Journal Article World Development 0305-750X http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29322 CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 World Bank Elsevier Publications & Research :: Journal Article Publications & Research Africa Southern Africa Zimbabwe
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
topic	DROUGHT DROUGHT-TOLERANT MAIZE CHOICE EXPERIMENT FOOD SECURITY RAINFED AGRICULTURE
spellingShingle	DROUGHT DROUGHT-TOLERANT MAIZE CHOICE EXPERIMENT FOOD SECURITY RAINFED AGRICULTURE Kassie, Girma T. Abdulai, Awudu Greene, William H. Shiferaw, Bekele Abate, Tsedeke Tarekegne, Amsal Sutcliffe, Chloe Modeling Preference and Willingness to Pay for Drought Tolerance in Maize in Rural Zimbabwe
geographic_facet	Africa Southern Africa Zimbabwe
description	Maize plays a leading role in the food security of millions in southern Africa, yet it is highly vulnerable to the moisture stress brought about by the erratic rainfall patterns that characterize weather systems in the area. Developing and making drought-tolerant maize varieties available to farmers in the region has thus long been a key goal on the regional development agenda. Farm-level adoption of these varieties, however, depends on local perceptions of the value they add, along with willingness to pay (WTP) for it. Focusing on Zimbabwe, this research aimed at estimating the implicit prices farmers are willing to pay for drought tolerance in maize compared to other preferred traits. Using a choice experiment framework, we generated 12,600 observations from a random sample of 1,400 households in communal areas within 14 districts of Zimbabwe. Taste parameters and heterogeneities were estimated using the generalized multinomial logit model (G-MNL). The results reveal drought tolerance, grain yield, covered cob tip, cob size, and semi-flint texture to be the most preferred traits by farm households in Zimbabwe. The WTP estimates show that farmers are willing to pay a premium for drought tolerance equal to 2.56, 7, 3.2, and 5 times higher than for an additional ton of yield per acre, bigger cob size, larger grain size, and covered cob tip, respectively. We suggest designing and implementing innovative ways of promoting DT maize along with awareness-raising activities to enhance contextual understandings of drought and drought risk to speed adoption of new DT maize varieties by risk-prone farming communities. Given the high level of rural literacy and the high rate of adoption of improved maize, trait-based promotion and marketing of varieties constitutes the right strategy.
format	Journal Article
author	Kassie, Girma T. Abdulai, Awudu Greene, William H. Shiferaw, Bekele Abate, Tsedeke Tarekegne, Amsal Sutcliffe, Chloe
author_facet	Kassie, Girma T. Abdulai, Awudu Greene, William H. Shiferaw, Bekele Abate, Tsedeke Tarekegne, Amsal Sutcliffe, Chloe
author_sort	Kassie, Girma T.
title	Modeling Preference and Willingness to Pay for Drought Tolerance in Maize in Rural Zimbabwe
title_short	Modeling Preference and Willingness to Pay for Drought Tolerance in Maize in Rural Zimbabwe
title_full	Modeling Preference and Willingness to Pay for Drought Tolerance in Maize in Rural Zimbabwe
title_fullStr	Modeling Preference and Willingness to Pay for Drought Tolerance in Maize in Rural Zimbabwe
title_full_unstemmed	Modeling Preference and Willingness to Pay for Drought Tolerance in Maize in Rural Zimbabwe
title_sort	modeling preference and willingness to pay for drought tolerance in maize in rural zimbabwe
publisher	Elsevier
publishDate	2018
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29322
_version_	1764469051867791360

Modeling Preference and Willingness to Pay for Drought Tolerance in Maize in Rural Zimbabwe

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