Tag: willingness to pay

In our study we investigated agroforestry systems and the market for products derived from them, from a consumer perspective. Agroforestry products are not yet in the public domain, so our research focused on the latent market for agroforestry products. This allowed the participants to form only an opinion, reactions which we were able to reveal using the Q-method. In our study, we targeted average consumers who are independent from agroforestry systems and products. Out of the 174 Q-Sort questionnaires, 85 were filled out with valid responses. As a result of our Q-analysis, we created 4 factors in order to minimise the number of factors and achieve a given level of total variance. Factor ‘A’ (N=26) “Alternative, Green Consumers” are committed to the  products of the sustainable economy, so agroforestry products would also be of interest. Factor ‘B’ (N=21) “Inquisitive Consumers” are interested in and eager to be informed about the products purchased, and they are willing to pay more for agroforestry products. For Factor ‘C’ (N=10) “Busy Consumers”, the low ecological footprint of agroforestry products is a big advantage, and they can be reached with articles published on various news portals and online media most effectively. Opinion Groups ‘A’ and ...

This paper assesses households’ awareness of the causes of drainage basin degradation and measures their willingness to pay for improved drainage basin management. Cross-sectional data were collected from 398 randomly-selected households. The spike and bivariate probit models were applied to determine the mean willingness to pay and factors affecting households’ willingness to pay, respectively. Agricultural expansion, population pressure, changes in weather conditions and climate change were identified as the main causes of degradation of the Dechatu drainage basin in Dire Dawa Administration, Ethiopia. The study also identified appropriate mechanisms and bases of charging a drainage basin management fee from the sampled respondents. The mean willingness to pay from the spike model was computed to be ETB 111 per annum for five years whereas the mean willingness to pay from the open-ended elicitation method was computed to be ETB 78 per year. The higher mean willingness to pay from the spike model might be due to anchoring effect from the dichotomous choice format. The result suggests that any drainage basin management system needs to consider the monthly income, location, sex, initial bids, occupation, marital status and educational level of the affected households.