Abstract:
The paper examines factors affecting farmer’s willingness to pay for sustainable land
management practices in Ethiopia, The study uses primary data collected from 200 households
randomly selected from four kebeles of districts in Ethiopia’s Benishangul-Gumuz regional state
with 4,800 observations (eight choices for each household). The MNlogit was used to estimate
determinants of willingness to pay using data generated from socio-demographic and economic
characteristics, while a choice experiment was used for generating data on trade-offs among
different attributes of the proposed bundle of SLM. The choice experiment design was done using
the R software to efficiently generate an attribute and level combination for the bundle of SLM
using the fractional factorial design. Data were analyzed using discrete choice models including
the multinomial logit model, mixed logit model, and conditional logit model using STAT-14. The
findings show that sample households were aware of the effects of using SLM and the benefits of
using a bundle of SLM. However, they were challenged by the costs of implementing a bundle of
SLM and technologies related to it. Moreover, the mean willingness to pay estimates show that
the households are ready to pay costs in the range of about 844 to 2540 Birr and incase of total
willingness to pay households ready to pay the costs not less than 66% for a bundle of SLM.
Crop-rotation attributes levels are negatively and significantly affect the decision for SLM, while
conserve-agriculture positively and significantly affects the households' decision to adopt a
bundle of SLM. Socio-demographic (family size and marital status) and socio-economic (the type
of crop, land size, landform, livestock, awareness about SLM and technologies), found to be the
factors that determine the decision to adopt SLM.
