Abstract
Community-based extension services (CES) are vital for improving farmers’ livelihoods, but most of them face a challenge of sustainability after phasing out of the externally funded initiatives that they are part of. This study estimated farmer’s willingness to pay (WTP) for four types of agricultural extension services (AES) in the cereals’ value chains provided as a part of two United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Feed the Future initiatives in Tanzania. Data were collected from 595 smallholder cereal farmers using a primary survey in four districts of the Southern Highlands. We implemented a double-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation method. Average WTP figures ranged from 20,000 to 24,000 TZS (8–10 USD) depending on the type of AES. Several socioeconomic and agriculture-related variables influenced smallholders’ WTP for the extension services. This research explored the feasibility of a farmer-led model as a pathway to delink extension services from public and donor funding to achieve sustainable rural development. Farmers place a monetary value on extension services indicating that policymakers and practitioners should make further efforts to enhance a community’s ability to achieve self-reliance through investments in CES.
Highlights
Poverty and food insecurity persist in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries at a rate of 41% and 23% [1,2], respectively, and the majority of the population is dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods [3]
Since poverty and food insecurity are mainly rural phenomena, the UN recognizes the importance of increasing agricultural productivity as a means to achieve two Sustainable Development Goals that aim at reducing poverty and hunger [4]
The Feed the Future (FtF) projects hypothesized that, as they phase out, there will be a market for village-based agricultural advisors (VBAAs) and Producer Organizations (POs) to provide extension services in exchange for a fee whereby, these qualified providers are readily available at the village level to assist farmers to fill knowledge gaps
Summary
Poverty and food insecurity persist in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries at a rate of 41% and 23% [1,2], respectively, and the majority of the population is dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods [3]. Since poverty and food insecurity are mainly rural phenomena, the UN recognizes the importance of increasing agricultural productivity as a means to achieve two Sustainable Development Goals that aim at reducing poverty and hunger [4]. The initiative’s main pillars are related to (1) sustainable resource management, (2) facilitating market access and rural infrastructure, (3) hunger reduction, (4) agricultural research, and (5) technology dissemination. Despite the efforts in place, agricultural productivity levels in most of Sub-Saharan African countries are still low [6] due to factors associated with inadequate access to improved agricultural technologies, information, credit, and market incentives
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