FARMERS' WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR COMPOST IN THE TAMALE METROPOLIS OF NORTHERN REGION

Abstract

Growing global population has especially increased concerns about feeding the future and effective management of waste generated in swift urbanising cities. In Ghana, these wastes are largely organic, and usually cost Municipal authorities a chunk of their budgets to manage. Rather than letting these wastes threaten environmental and human health, they could be composted to replenish soil fertilities and increase crop yields for many periods after the period of application. This study examines farmers' Willingness to Pay (WTP) for compost in the Tamale Metropolis using quadruple bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation method to elicit farmers' WTP and ordered probit model to assess factors that influence farmers' WTP. Semi structured questionnaires were administered to 230 randomly selected farmers. The main findings of the study are that farmers are generally willing to pay for compost with mean WTP of GH₵ 28.04 for 50kg bag of compost. The determinants of farmers' WTP for compost were identified as farm size, farm security, keeping cattle, knowledge about compost, training in compost preparation, access to credit, compost use and perception about soil fertility. It is recommended that government and private partners invest in composting and make compost as readily. available and accessible to farmers as alternative fertilisers for crop production.