FARMERS ACCEPTABILITY AND WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR ORGANIC FERTILIZER IN UYO LOCALGOVERNMENTAREA,AKWAIBOM STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Recently, concerns about the negative impacts of synthetic fertilizers on human health and the environment have led to increased interest in organic farming as sustainable alternatives. The study assessed farmers acceptability and willingness to pay for organic fertilizer with the specific objectives of determining the level of awareness of organic fertilizer among farmers, the types of materials used as organic fertilizer by farmers, the accessibility of the organic fertilizer by farmers, the willingness to pay for organic fertilizer by farmers and the factors that influences farmers acceptability and willingness to pay for organic fertilizer. The study was conducted in Uyo LGA, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. A two stage sampling procedure was used to collect data from 200 farmers using a structured questionnaire which were analyzed using descriptive statistics, likert scale and logit regression model. From the result, majority of the respondents have high level of awareness of organic fertilizer in terms of components (75%), and about 85% of the respondents were willing to pay for organic fertilizer. The result showed that factors that have a positive significance on the willingness to pay for organic fertilizer includes availability of organic fertilizer, level of awareness of organic fertilizer and educational level but age, gender, household size and price of organic fertilizer have negative influence on the willingness to pay for organic fertilizer. It was concluded that farmers are more likely to purchase more of organic fertilizer if the benefits outweigh the cost and recommended that awareness campaigns should be created to educate farmers and consumers on the benefits of organic fertilizers, emphasizing their health advantages, environmental impact, and increased crop yields.