Willingness to Pay for Faecal Compost by Farmers in Southern Ghana

Abstract

The use of faecal waste for agricultural production is practiced by farmers in most parts of Ghana. However, information about farmer acceptability and willingness to pay is not widely reported.  Using choice experiment, this study analyse willingness to pay for faecal compost by farmers in Ningo-Prampram and Shai-Osudoku in Southern Ghana. Data was collected from 200 randomly sampled farming households and analysed using basic and hybrid conditional logit models. Results show farmers’ marginal willingness to pay values of US$ 0.51 for packaging only, US$ 0.32 for labeling only and US$ 0.82 for packaging and labeling of 50kg faecal compost. Farmers` willingness to pay was significantly influenced by their knowledge on faecal waste re-use in agriculture and experience with use of animal manure. Product attributes such as price, packaging and labeling as well as farmer’s socio-demographic characteristics, such as monthly household income, household size and age also significantly influence farmers’ willingness to pay.

Keywords: Choice Experiment, hybrid Conditional Logit, Faecal Compost, Ghana