Heterogeneities in Farmers’ Preference for Advisory Services: A Choice Experiment of Vegetable Growers in North-Western Ethiopia

Ermias Tesfaye Teferi (), Tigist Damtew Worku, Solomon Bizuayehu Wassie, Bernd Muller, Abdul-Rahim Abdulai and Céline Termote
Additional contact information
Ermias Tesfaye Teferi: International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Addis Ababa P.O. Box 5689, Ethiopia
Tigist Damtew Worku: Department of Agricultural Economics, College of Agriculture, Food and Climate Science, Injibara University, Injibara P.O. Box 40, Ethiopia
Solomon Bizuayehu Wassie: Department of Agricultural Economics, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Blue Nile Water Institute, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar P.O. Box 79, Ethiopia
Bernd Muller: Faculty of Agriculture, Food, and Nutrition, Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences, 85354 Freising, Germany
Abdul-Rahim Abdulai: International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Cali 6713, Colombia
Céline Termote: The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, Nairobi P.O. Box 823-00621, Kenya

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 24, 1-15

Abstract: This study investigated vegetable farmers’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for private agricultural advisory services in northwestern Ethiopia. Understanding farmers’ preferences is a crucial step for modernizing agricultural advisory services and transforming smallholder agri-food systems into a sustainable path. Discrete choice experiment data from 393 farm households were analyzed using a random parameter logit model (RPL). The results revealed that vegetable farmers are willing to pay for practice-oriented private advisory services. The result also showed the existence of heterogeneity in farmers’ preference for features of vegetable advisory services. Household heads’ educational status and age influenced preferences for advisory service features. The result is substantiated by the fact that merely 25.5% of the sample households acquired formal education. Farmers in general preferred extension services with frequent expert visits and practical engagement on-farm as opposed to digitized options that rely on short message service (SMS) and voice-based guidance. Additionally, farmers are willing to pay an ETB 120.89 and ETB 203.94 monthly fee for an extension service that emphasizes fruity and root and tuber vegetables, respectively, as opposed to leafy vegetables. The findings imply initiatives that push for commercializing agricultural advisory services should strive to achieve a balance between the practical application and digitization of extension services accounting for the heterogeneous preferences of smallholder farmers.

Keywords: mobile-based extension service; practice-oriented extension service; random parameter logit; willingness-to-pay; private agricultural advisory; preference heterogeneity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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