An Assessment of Farmers Willingness to Pay for Wheat Consultant Engineers Project: In Iran

Abstract

<strong>Problem statement:</strong> Public extension performance in many developing &#13; countries including Iran is not up to the expectation of farming community. Further, &#13; in recent years, many governments are very reluctant to shoulder huge financial &#13; investment for public extension. Hence, extension specialists and policy makers &#13; propose privatization of extension services in developing countries. <strong>Approach</strong>: &#13; Considering existing agricultural extension scenario, a study designed to determine &#13; the level of farmer Willingness To Pay (WTP) for Wheat Consulting Engineers Project &#13; (WCEsP) (as a private extension services) in Esfahan province, Iran, during 2007. &#13; Questionnaires used to assess the amount which farmers were willing to pay and &#13; WCEs that were received incomes of farmers. Primary data on the demographic, socio-economic &#13; variables of farmers and their WTP collected from 100 farmers and 95 wheat consultant &#13; engineers selected randomly in a sampling procedure in the Esfahan, Iran. Data &#13; collected were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences &#13; (SPSS). The data summarized using frequency distribution.<strong> Results:</strong> &#13; Results of the analysis showed that (75%) of farmers no present for paying also &#13; (55 %) said that in the future no ability to pay. Also (63%) of WCEs did not receive &#13; any money from farmers. The result of farmers showed that were membership of WCEsP &#13; only extension volunteers had a more tendency for paying. In addition to WCEs &#13; that have played more roles in contracts, in way of getting money related to cost &#13; have acted successfully. <strong>Conclusions/Recommendations:</strong> The study &#13; concluded that there is a challenge to extension experts to make programs participatory &#13; and farmers relevant if farmers to be charged with the responsibility of participating &#13; in financing agricultural extension services

Reorganization of Agricultural Extension toward Green Agriculture

“…Several studies in Iran showed that, although extension services has played a positive role in agricultural development of Iran [22] , but there are difficulties, barriers, misunderstandings and weaknesses in the transfer of new technology and information to farmers. Lacking the suitable extension organizational characteristics has been a barrier for transfer of appropriate new technology to farmers [8] .…”

Food for thought

“…Organic food is perceived to be better than traditionally grown food, which is the reason why health is often a primary consideration in purchasing decisions (Pearson, 2001;Chinnici et al, 2002;Hill and Lynchehaun, 2002;Tregear et al, 1994). However, inflated prices are often cited as one of the significant barriers to purchasing (Asadi et al, 2008;Millock et al, 2002;Nedra et al, 2015;Lee and Yun, 2015), and between 2000 and 2013, as many as 194 research studies have addressed this issue (R€ odiger and Hamm, 2015).…”

Perception and motivation to purchase organic products in Mediterranean countries

“…Indeed, the perception of these products is a result of knowledge concerning organic products. Numerous researches were also carried out, particularly on the consumer's perception of the price which is considered more expensive than that of the conventional products (Govindasarny and Italia, 1999;Sanchez et al, 1998;Boccaletti and Nardella, 2000;Gil et al, 2001;Millock et al, 2002;Brugarolos Mollà-Bauzà et al, 2005;Asadi et al, 2008).…”