Cowpeas are a critical crop for food and income security for millions of people in Africa. Insect... more Cowpeas are a critical crop for food and income security for millions of people in Africa. Insect pests, however, are a major production constraint causing over 50% yield losses. Farmers indiscriminately apply expensive synthetic pesticides in spite of attendant health and environmental risks. Recognizing that current chemical control methods are costly and unsustainable for resource-poor farmers, an innovative integrated pest management strategy based on biocontrol agents is being explored for West Africa. Therefore, the objective of this study was to predict potential adoption of the innovative biocontrol strategy by determining important factors that explain farmers' pest control decisions. To this end, we designed a choice experiment survey for 505 cowpea farmers in Benin. A conditional logit model was estimated. Survey findings indicate that farmers are aware of health hazards but persistently apply chemical pesticides out of necessity. Also, model results reveal that impor...
Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, 2018
Food safety enjoys sustained attention among the scientific community, policymakers, and the gene... more Food safety enjoys sustained attention among the scientific community, policymakers, and the general public due to health impacts. However, pursuing appropriate regulations for pervasive food contaminants is a challenging policy issue, particularly for naturally-occurring food toxins such as aflatoxins and other mycotoxins. This paper explores consumer preferences for quality aflatoxin-free peanuts, and how food safety concerns may impact willingness to pay more for safer foods. Incorporating ‘risky’ foods into random utility-maximization framework, we analyze contingent valuation survey data on Ghana. Model and survey results show consumers in Ghana approve of food aflatoxin regulations, and are prepared to pay price premiums as incentives to ensure supply of quality peanuts. Findings reveal that consumers prioritize food safety above prices in market decisions. People prefer introduction of aflatoxin regulations that would guarantee good health; useful information for policy maker...
This dissertation is composed of three chapters covering topics about the impact of aflatoxin reg... more This dissertation is composed of three chapters covering topics about the impact of aflatoxin regulation policies on peanut suppliers and consumers. Chapter One evaluates welfare implications of aflatoxin standards imposed on peanut imported into the European Union (EU) market. Price and quantity effects on peanut suppliers and consumers are determined. The equilibrium displacement modeling (EDM) approach is applied on a source-differentiated market; where standards compliance costs are modeled as import tax to understand the distribution of economic incidence. Findings show that aflatoxin regulation tightening leads to price and quantity drop for the United States and other exporters, while China benefits owing to price and quantity increases. This result contradicts popular belief that strict aflatoxin regulations hurt all exporters in terms of lost revenues. Also, import suppliers and consumers share in the costs from the policy although consumers pay much of the costs. Chapter T...
Cowpeas are a critical crop for food and income security for millions of people in Africa. Insect... more Cowpeas are a critical crop for food and income security for millions of people in Africa. Insect pests, however, are a major production constraint causing over 50% yield losses. Farmers indiscriminately apply expensive synthetic pesticides in spite of attendant health and environmental risks. Recognizing that current chemical control methods are costly and unsustainable for resource-poor farmers, an innovative integrated pest management strategy based on biocontrol agents is being explored for West Africa. Therefore, the objective of this study was to predict potential adoption of the innovative biocontrol strategy by determining important factors that explain farmers' pest control decisions. To this end, we designed a choice experiment survey for 505 cowpea farmers in Benin. A conditional logit model was estimated. Survey findings indicate that farmers are aware of health hazards but persistently apply chemical pesticides out of necessity. Also, model results reveal that impor...
Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, 2018
Food safety enjoys sustained attention among the scientific community, policymakers, and the gene... more Food safety enjoys sustained attention among the scientific community, policymakers, and the general public due to health impacts. However, pursuing appropriate regulations for pervasive food contaminants is a challenging policy issue, particularly for naturally-occurring food toxins such as aflatoxins and other mycotoxins. This paper explores consumer preferences for quality aflatoxin-free peanuts, and how food safety concerns may impact willingness to pay more for safer foods. Incorporating ‘risky’ foods into random utility-maximization framework, we analyze contingent valuation survey data on Ghana. Model and survey results show consumers in Ghana approve of food aflatoxin regulations, and are prepared to pay price premiums as incentives to ensure supply of quality peanuts. Findings reveal that consumers prioritize food safety above prices in market decisions. People prefer introduction of aflatoxin regulations that would guarantee good health; useful information for policy maker...
This dissertation is composed of three chapters covering topics about the impact of aflatoxin reg... more This dissertation is composed of three chapters covering topics about the impact of aflatoxin regulation policies on peanut suppliers and consumers. Chapter One evaluates welfare implications of aflatoxin standards imposed on peanut imported into the European Union (EU) market. Price and quantity effects on peanut suppliers and consumers are determined. The equilibrium displacement modeling (EDM) approach is applied on a source-differentiated market; where standards compliance costs are modeled as import tax to understand the distribution of economic incidence. Findings show that aflatoxin regulation tightening leads to price and quantity drop for the United States and other exporters, while China benefits owing to price and quantity increases. This result contradicts popular belief that strict aflatoxin regulations hurt all exporters in terms of lost revenues. Also, import suppliers and consumers share in the costs from the policy although consumers pay much of the costs. Chapter T...
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