Assessment of peri-urban livestock producers' willingness to pay for improved forages as cash crops.

Availability of quality feed is a major constraint for livestock production in Burkina Faso. Despite previous efforts to test improved forages at research stations to overcome the dry-season feed gap, little has been done to promote them as cash crops that can contribute to meeting the growing feed demand in the country. This study was undertaken to evaluate the willingness to pay (WTP) for improved forage by livestock producers in the peri-urban livestock production systems of Burkina Faso. A total of 202 livestock producers were interviewed using semi-structured questionnaires. The contingent valuation method and Tobit econometric model were used to analyze the survey data. Exactly 79% of the interviewed livestock producers were willing to pay for improved forages for their livestock. Key factors that significantly affect this decision were the price of cottonseed cakes used as supplemental feed (= .001), farmers' knowledge about improved forage crops (= .001), farmers' ethnicity (= .05), and farmers' practice of daily grazing and transhumance (= .01). The estimated WTP for improved forage as a cash crop was US$0.32 kg for all livestock producers and $0.58 kg for those who only expressed a positive WTP. The positive WTP for improved forages and factors affecting that decision suggest that producing improved forages is a viable alternative to expensive cottonseed cakes and the practice of transhumance to overcome the dry-season feed gap. Therefore, dissemination of improved forages is recommended to market-oriented crop farmers to meet the growing feed demand in Burkina Faso.