Farmers' willingness to pay for genetically modified maize seeds in the Philippines: a choice experiment approach

Professorial Chair Lecture

SEARCA Professorial Chair Lecture

Place

Department of Agricultural Economics, College of Economics and Management, University of the Philippines Los Baños

Date

6-30-2009

Abstract

Maize is the second most important grain crop in the Philippines after rice and used extensively as feed for the poultry and livestock industries. Production however, continued to lag behind demand due primarily to biotic and abiotic pressures. The Asian Corn Borer became a major production constraint in the eighties warranting the commercialization of the genetically modified maize in 2002. Varietal maize improvement was also continued both by public and private institutions to enhance the various attributes of seed maize. Various types of seed maize are now available in the market including the Bt maize that differ in attributes. There is therefore a need to know how these enhancements have influenced the preference structure of farmers on seed maize. In this paper, a choice experiment was employed to investigate farmer valuation of the various seed types and attributes with the option to use the Bt trait. Data were collected from 466 maize farm households across two major maize producing provinces, Isabela and South Cotabato. The conditional logit and the random parameter logit models were employed to estimate implicit values of attributes and heterogeneity across sites. The results reveal that the Bt trait does not drive maize seed choice but, farmers put more priority on costs, payment options and source of information. Using the random parameter logit model produced better estimates as it accounted for the heterogeneity on farmers' valuation of yield loss and seed type attributes. Preference heterogeneity among farmers was also explored bu clustering according to variety used and results reveal that improvements in the explanation of the data can be achieved by variety specific regressions. Farmers were willing to pay more than 200 pesos for a 1% reduction in yield loss and 2303 pesos for an 18 kg. bag of Bt maize seeds. The findings have policy implications in terms of the importance of credit, provision of sound information, and the diversity of farm populations and agro-ecologies in broadening the seed market in the Philippines.

Location

UPLB Main Library Special Collections Section (USCS)

College

College of Economics and Management (CEM)

Language

English

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