Willingness to Pay for Walking Tractor: Evidence from smallholder farmer’s in Northwestern Ethiopia

Abstract

Although the government of Ethiopia strives to promote agricultural tractors, the cost of tractor purchase is unaffordable for smallholder farmers. Hence, tractor access is provided by private and group-owned hiring services. But, smallholder farmers’ willingness to pay for walking tractor rental services was not investigated. Consequently, this study was conducted to measure and analyze smallholder farmers' willingness to pay for walking tractor rental services in Ethiopia using a one-and-one-half bounded format and the craggit econometric model. A total of 190 smallholder farmers were randomly selected to collect primary data. The result revealed that nearly four-fifths of the sample respondents were willing to pay for a walking tractor rental service. Besides, smallholder farmers' willingness to pay for a walking tractor varies between 200 and 3000 birr, with an average value of 718.50 birr per timad. Likewise, the sex of the respondent, farm experience, farm size, farm plot suitability, household income, extension service, and field day participation all had a positive and statistically significant effect on smallholder farmers' willingness to pay for walking tractor rental service. Hence, policymakers, development workers, researchers, and rental service providers should work together to increase access to smallholder farmers to get the tractor at an affordable rental price.