We use cookies to provide you with the best possible website experience. This includes cookies that are necessary for the operation of the site, as well as cookies used for anonymous statistics, comfort settings, or displaying personalized content. You can decide which categories you want to allow. Please note that depending on your settings, some features of the website may not be available.

Cookie settings

These necessary cookies are required to enable the core functionality of the website. Opting out of these cookies is not possible.

cb-enable
This cookie stores the user's cookie consent status for the current domain. Expiry: 1 year.
laravel_session
Stores the session ID to recognize the user when the page reloads and to restore their login session. Expiry: 2 hours.
XSRF-TOKEN
Provides CSRF protection for forms. Expiry: 2 hours.
IZA Discussion Paper No. 17472
November 2024
Small-Scale Farmers' Willingness to Pay for Information: A Comparison of Individual Purchase Decisions with Contributions to a Club Good
Michael Grimm, Nathalie Luck, Alia Bihrajihant Raya, Udit Sawhney

Soil tests provide information that can help farmers to reduce costs, increase yields and profits, and contribute to sustainable soil health, yet they are rarely used. In this study, we elicit small-scale farmers' willingness-to-pay (WTP) for rapid, low-cost soil tests using incentive-compatible auctions. Additionally, we test whether randomized participation in a sustainable soil management training can increase farmers' WTP. Furthermore, we elicit an alternative WTP by measuring the willingness to contribute to the costs of a soil test kit when farmer groups are offered kits containing 50 tests along with a training session that enables them to carry out the soil tests independently. Free riding is possible in this setting, and contributions will depend on social preferences and beliefs about the contributions of others. Our study shows that the WTP for soil information is considerable. Although we find some evidence for free riding, this does not significantly affect the WTP between the individual and the group auction. Our experiment demonstrates that integrating soil tests with existing extension services could be relatively straightforward. Subsidies can be justified by the potential environmental benefits.

Communications
Mark Fallak
mark.fallak@liser.lu
+352 585-855-526
World of Labour
Olga Nottmeyer
olga.nottmeyer@liser.lu
+352 585-855-501
Network Coordination
Christina Gathmann
christina.gathmann@liser.lu

The IZA@LISER Network is a global community of scholars dedicated to excellence in labor economics and related fields, now coordinated at the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) following its transition from Bonn.

About IZA@LISER Network
Contact
IZA Network (Current Site Operator):

Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER)
11, Porte des Sciences
Maison des Sciences Humaines
L-4366 Esch-sur-Alzette / Belval, Luxembourg

IZA Institute (In Liquidation):

Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH i. L.
Schaumburg-Lippe-Str. 5-9, 53113 Bonn. Germany
Phone: +49 228 3894-0 | Fax: +49 228 3894-510
E-Mail: info@iza.org | Web: www.iza.org
Represented by: Martin T. Clemens (Liquidator)