Farmers’ willingness to pay for climate-resilient agriculture technologies: A case study from the coastal low-lying region of Kerala

AbstractClimate change poses complex challenges to agriculture in terms of multiple abiotic stresses on crops and livestock, shortages of water, land degradation, and loss of biodiversity. In order to make agriculture adaptable to climate change, it is necessary to promote climate-resilient agriculture (CRA) technologies, and to ensure that these technologies are affordable from the perspective of farmers. In light of this, the present study was designed to analyse farmers’ willingness to pay (WTP) as well as the factors affecting WTP for the selected CRA technologies in the Muttar village of Alappuzha district in Kerala. A total of three technologies and 60 beneficiary farmers (20 for each technology) were selected at random for the purpose of this study. The farmers’ WTP was determined using the contingent valuation method, and then the factors influencing farmers’ WTP were determined using the interval regression model. The findings of the study revealed that the majority of the beneficiary farmers (>85%) were willing to pay for the technologies Crop field mechanisation and Site-specific acidity & nutrient management, while only 45.00 per cent of them were willing to pay for the technology Intercropping short-duration cassava. It was also observed that the factors affecting farmers’ WTP varied from technology to technology based on its nature, purpose, and utility. Therefore, technologies in the future should be carefully developed with these considerations in mind.