A household hedonic model of rice traits: economic values from farmers in West Africa

Abstract

New crop varieties often have been promoted in developing countries based upon superior yield vis-a-vis locally available varieties. This research presents a hedonic price model for upland rice by drawing upon the input characteristics and consumer good characteristics model literature. Model specification tests determine that a combination of production and consumption characteristics best explains the willingness to pay for new upland rice varieties. The household model specification determined that five traits explain the willingness to pay for new rice varieties: plant cycle length, plant height, grain colour, elongation/ swelling and tenderness. Yield was not a significant explanatory variable of the willingness to pay for seed. The implications of this model are two-fold. First, varietal development and promotion must include post-harvest characteristics in addition to production traits when determining which varieties to promote for official release. Secondly, non-yield production characteristics such as plant height and cycle length are significant factors in producer's assessments of the value of a new variety. Overall, this paper provides an alternative explanation for limited adoption of modern upland rice varieties in West Africa: varietal evaluation programs have focused too narrowly on yield evaluation and have not promoted varieties with superior non-yield characteristics than locally available varieties.

Farmer willingness to pay for seed-related information: rice varieties in Nigeria and Benin

“…Though surprising, these findings coincide with those obtained by Dalton (2004) in his hedonic analysis of the economic value of rice traits. The model estimated for all respondents suggests that, in general, farmers prefer varieties with higher potential yield.…”

“…Finding similar patterns with the application of a hedonic analysis, Dalton (2004) concluded that although yield has served as a defining factor for promoting a new variety for official release, high yield was not a significant determinant of farmer WTP for new rice varieties in West Africa. The probit coefficients indicate that these attributes are important determinants of the seed preferences stated by farmers, although, in many cases, the sign of coefficient seems to contradict that sought by rice researchers.…”

“…Utility maximization has been used as the theoretical framework to model rice attribute preferences in several studies in West Africa, where markets are typically incomplete (Adesina and Zinnah, 1993;Diagne and Arsene, 2002;Dalton, 2004). These studies have also treated varieties as bundles of characteristics or traits, drawing on the Lancaster theory of consumer choice (1966).…”

Assessing the potential of labelling schemes forin situlandrace conservation: an example from India

“…Since the seminal work of Waugh (1928), a number of studies have employed hedonic pricing to examine the price structure of different agricultural products (e.g., Unnevehr, 1986;Parker and Zilberman, 1993;Dalton, 2004;Edmeades, 2007;Amegbeto et al, 2008). Since the seminal work of Waugh (1928), a number of studies have employed hedonic pricing to examine the price structure of different agricultural products (e.g., Unnevehr, 1986;Parker and Zilberman, 1993;Dalton, 2004;Edmeades, 2007;Amegbeto et al, 2008).…”

Adoption of drought-tolerant rice in Thailand: Participatory varietal selection and implications for breeding programs

“…Doss (2006) emphasized the advantage of micro-level crosssectional analysis to understand farmer preferences, growing conditions in specific areas and what varietal characteristics are important to farmers. Recent studies accentuated farmer perceptions of varietal traits and their influences on the adoption behavior (Adesina and Zinnah, 1993;Adesina and Seidi, 1995;Adesina and Baidu-Forson, 1995;Edmeades et al, 2008;Hintze et al, 2003;Joshi and Pandey, 2006;Wale and Yalew, 2007;Ramasamy et al, 1999), with particular interest in hedonic pricing (Dalton, 2004;Pingali et al, 2001) and revealed preferences of trait valuation (Useche et al, 2009). In this study, farmer preferences for droughttolerant glutinous rice are of particular interest; thus, traits subjectively selected from PVS breeding program are hypothesized to influence the adoption of RD12.…”