Assessment of Factors Influencing Smallholder Farmers Willingness to Pay for Climate Change Adaptation Information Access in South- Eastern Kenya

Abstract

Farmers’ adaptation to climate change is crucial in ensuring agricultural production and improving food insecurity. Farmers needed access to climate change adaptation information to enable them to plan their agricultural investments. This study sought to assess farmers’ willingness to pay to access climate change adaptation information as they seek to achieve resilience in the face of changing climatic conditions. Qualitative and quantitative research approach was adopted where data was collected first-hand by interviewing 443 smallholder farmers. Ordinary Least Square method was applied to analyse the factors that influenced farmers' willingness to Pay. From the findings, 77.2% of the farmers were willing to pay for climate adaptation information. The mean willingness to pay in Cash was 12.78 USD per year. Farmers who wished to pay through provision of farm produce were highly skewed towards provision of maize that amounted to 18.40 USD at current market value. The climate change adaptation information effectiveness, knowledge, and access to information were the leading factors that influenced farmers’ WTP. Age and main source of income significantly influenced WTP negatively. Dissemination of this information through effective channels is encouraged to enable farmers to access and improve their WTP.