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

Although the Ugandan government is determined to aid farmers increase agricultural productivity through extension services, resources constraints are dampening its efforts. This paper seeks to predict farmers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for extension services and factors that influence this willingness.

The document clarifies that private extension services providers were invited to take up information dissemination roles, which increased the importance of evaluating farmers’ WTP for extension services.

The findings reveal that about 35% and 40% of the farmers are willing to pay on average US$1.8 and US$2 per trip for extension services in crop and animal husbandry respectively. Other major findings:

• education level of the individual play an important role in the willingness to pay for extension services for both crop as well as animal husbandry
• availability of relevant information on topical issues of concern also affects the willingness to pay and stated preference
• farmers in central regions show more willingness to pay for extension services, be they on crop or animal husbandry; this is due to their agricultural systems, which are markets oriented
• other key farmer’s attributes that influence willingness to pay included sex, age and preferred means to receive the services
• the demand for extension and preferred price are low for private sectors engagement
  

Recommendations:

• the government should firstly educate the public on the importance of extension services
• extension services should be rolled out in central areas as efforts to educate farmers from other areas