Measuring Consumers Willingness to pay for “Safer” Vegetables in Urban and Peri-Urban Ghana.

This study attempts to measure vegetable consumers willingness to pay for “safer” vegetables from some non-treatment options of waste water use in urban/peri-urban agriculture in Accra and Kumasi. The non-treatment options of wastewater use in vegetable production were found to have significant effects in pathogen and faecal content reduction on vegetables and reduction in soil and ground water contamination levels. However, urban farmers who would adopt and implement these non-treatment options will marginally increase their cost of production. Are vegetable consumers in Accra and Kumasi willing to pay for the marginal cost increment to enjoy the benefits that come with these non-treatment options and to keep the farmers in business? The study used a total of 650 households from Accra and Kumasi by using the random sampling method. In assessing consumers’ health concerns on vegetables and their opinion on the level along the vegetable food chain where they get contaminated, descriptive statistics was used. Choice experiment method was used to elicit consumers’ choice of the non-treatment options and their willingness to pay for each option. In measuring the direct impact of the socio-economic characteristics and the choice options on consumers individual willingness to pay, the ordinary least squares regression method was used. The results revealed that, on the average, consumers spend GH¢4.80 representing about 1.8% of household income per month on vegetables. The results showed that, vegetable consumers are aware of the unsafe nature of vegetables in the markets and are willing to move from the status quo by paying in general, an average of GH¢4.70 ($4.61) representing about 97.9% of the average household expenditure on vegetables per month. It was found that vegetable consumers have a choice when it comes to the non-treatment options of wastewater use in vegetable production. It revealed that: 10.1% of consumers sampled opted for the improved use of watering cans (Option B) and their average willingness to pay for that option was found to be GH¢4.40 ($4.50) per month, 9.2% of consumers sampled opted for the cessation of irrigation to allow pathogen die-off (Option C) and their average willingness to pay was found to be GH¢ 4.70 ($4.61) per month, 74.6% of the sampled consumers opted for the use of drip kits (Option D) and their average willingness to pay was found to be GH¢4.90 ($4.80) per month and 4% of the sampled consumers opted for market washing of vegetables with clean water (Option E) and their average willingness to pay was found to be GH¢ 4.40 ($4.50) per month. Gender, income and experience of suffering from vegetable borne diseases were statistically significant at 5%, 1% and 1% respectively implying that, male consumers are likely to be willing to pay for safer vegetable than their female counterparts, also, high income and consumers with the experience with vegetable borne diseases are likely to be willing to pay for safer vegetables. On the choice of non-treatment options, the current water application methods using open buckets (Option A) was found to be inversely related to consumers’ individual willingness to pay whiles the use of drip kits (Option D) was positively related to consumers’ individual willingness to pay.

Source: KNUST