Farmers’ preferences and willingness to pay for climate-smart agricultural technologies on rice production in Nigeria

Abstract

ABSTRACT Climate change is a critical environmental issue that has threatened sustainable rice production in Nigeria. The application of climate-smart agricultural (CSA) technologies by smallholder farmers is vital for sustaining rice production in the face of climate change impacts. We investigate rice farmers’ preferences and elicit willingness to pay (WTP) for CSA technologies, using the contingent valuation method (CVM). We find that most farmers do not utilize innovative CSA technologies. The CSA technologies most preferred by farmers are drip irrigation, drainage management, and weather-based rice agro-advisories. At the same time, they are willing to pay $115.63 annually for CSA, notably: $40.25 for knowledge-smart, $31.02 for water-smart, $17.97 for nutrient-smart, $17.72 for weather-smart, $6.82 for carbon-smart, and $1.85 for energy-smart technologies. Age, gender, access to credit, education, extension visit, farm size, and social group membership are significant predictors of farmers’ choices. Key policy insights Identifying and prioritizing farmers’ preferred CSA technologies would enable them and other relevant stakeholders to make investment decisions. Given farmers’ low willingness to pay for CSA technologies, incentives such as subsidies and interest-free loans should be provided to boost uptake. Committing a substantial amount of money to credit facilities would help scale up CSA technologies’ adoption. A robust framework on the revitalization of agricultural extension services would increase extension visits, helping to scale up farmers’ adoption of CSA technologies.