Effect of nutritional information and sensory quality on the willingness to pay for quality protein maize - results of a field experiment in Jimma zone, Ethiopia

Samuel Diro, Hugo De Groote and Nilupa Gunarata

No 246979, 2016 Fifth International Conference, September 23-26, 2016, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE)

Abstract: Quality Protein Maize (QPM) has been fortified with lysine and tryptophan to improve the poor protein quality of conventional maize. For farmers to adopt QPM, there needs to be a market for it. This paper studies how nutritional information and sensory quality affects WTP for QPM grain, white and yellow, among rural consumers farmers in Jimma zone, Ethiopia. The study used affective tests, both central location test (CLT) and modified home-use (MHUT), and the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) experimental auction mechanism to estimate WTP. The CLT was conducted with 192 participants, while 210 mothers with children aged 6-23 months participated in the MHUT. To analyze the effect of information on WTP, the participants were randomly assigned to two treatment groups; first group was also provided with information after the BDM, and the BDM was repeated after information was provided. The results of the affective tests preparations of white and yellow QPM were significantly more appreciated than those of their white and yellow conventional maize counterparts. The BDM mechanism results revealed that respondents were willing to pay more for QPM grain than for conventional maize. Further, nutritional information boosted bids for white and yellow QPM grain and reduced the bids of white and yellow CM grains. The main factor affecting WTP for QPM was its sensory quality. The study, finally, recommends marketers and food processors to use the QPM’s favorable sensory characteristics to penetrate in to the market and to emphasize on formal and non-formal information dissemination mechanisms for its wider adoption and dissemination.

Keywords: Consumer/Household Economics; Demand and Price Analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29
Date: 2016-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-dcm and nep-exp
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aaae16:246979

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.246979

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