Willingness to pay for extension services in Uganda among farmers involved in crop and animal husbandry

Abstract

Although the Ugandan government is determined to aid farmers increase agricultural productivity as an intervention on increasi ng food security and reducing poverty through extension services, resources cons traints are dampening its efforts. Private extension services providers are being invited to take up inform ation dissemination roles with queries on the availability and demand of the services among farmers to attract priv ate sector and factors influencing the demand for extension services . Data collected by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) on national service deliv ery throughout the country in 2008 among 5363 and 3318 farmers involved in crops’ and animals’ husba ndry was used to predict willingness to pay, amount farmers were willing to pay for extension services and factors that were to influence willingness to pay. It was established that a bout 35% and 40% of the farmers were willing to pay on average Ugandan shillings 3,400 (US$ 1.8) and 3,700 (US$ 2) per trip for extension services in crop and animal husbandry respective ly. Key farmer’s attributes that influenced willingness to pay included sex, age, education le vel, regions of residence and preferred means to receive the services. The demand for extension and preferred price are low for private sectors engagement and the government should first e ducate the public on the importance of the services.