Consumer’s Willingness to Pay For Pesticide Free Food Products in The Accra-TEMA Metropolitan Areas

ABSTRACT

In Ghana, as in many developing countries, farmers depends largely on pesticides to control pest and weeds. Unfortunately, residues of this pesticides in the soil, crops and vegetables poses a great harm to the environment and human health which has the ability to erode the marginal developmental gains that have been made. This study seeks to investigate how much households in the Accra-Tema Metropolitan areas are willing to pay for selected Pesticide Free Products that are more environmentally friendly and does not pose any danger to environment and human health. The study also examined factors that influence household’s willingness to pay for PFP products using contingent valuation method and the ordered probit regression model. The results indicates that, factors such as education, environmental consciousness, household income and being a member of association increases the likelihood of households paying for PFP, whiles the number of aged persons in a household, residing in low income communities and employment were found to decrease the likelihood of households paying for PFP. Analysis of WTP suggest that, majority (99.6%) of the inhabitants in the Accra-Tema Metropolitan areas are willing to pay a premium of GHȻ 0.88) for the selected PFP. This represents 17.5% increase over the prevailing average price of the non PFP. The study recommends that, government advocate for the adoption of pesticide free production techniques and also intensify education and sensitization on the importance of maintaining a clean and healthy environment. It is also recommended that, there should be increase in general income if government want to increase WTP.