Assessment of Rural Farming Households WTP for Fertilizers and Agrochemicals in Kwawara State, Nigeria

Given the specific geographic and spatial location of rural areas in developing countries, to bring agrochemical to the rural farming households, it is argued, may have to come at a cost over and above the normal price it is sold in market. To this end, this work focuses on the willingness of rural farming households to pay more than the mean average regional retail price for agrochemicals in Kwara state, North Central Nigeria. Questionnaire was administered to 100 randomly sampled in the two agricultural development zones (ADP) in the study area. Descriptive statistics and the Logistic Binary Regression model were fitted to examine factors that influence respondents’ decision to pay more than the prevailing average prices for access to agrochemicals in the study area. Findings indicated a high level of awareness of agrochemical use and modal responses to quantities used include: fertilizers (41-50Kg/ha), herbicides ( < 10liters/ha), and pesticides ( < 10liters/ha) on the cultivation of yam, cassava and maize, which were the dominant arable crops in the study area. About 90% of the respondents purchase agrochemicals from their personal savings and less than 10% of the respondents got their agrochemicals from other sources (governmental, developmental agencies, ADP and farmers’ cooperative). Furthermore, 88% (p < 0.01) of the respondents indicate willingness to pay more than the current average price to have access to agrochemicals and the logistic regression reveals that level of education (P < 0.01), had a positive relationship with respondents’ to willingness to pay more for agrochemicals in the study area. Recommendations were made towards encouraging expanded use of agrochemicals throughenhanced marketing strategies that will facilitate contact of marketing agents to prospective customers located in the rural communities.