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Browsing by Author "Bonabana-Wabbi, Jackline"

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    Assessing Factors Affecting Adoption of Agricultural Technologies: The Case of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in Kumi District, Eastern Uganda
    Bonabana-Wabbi, Jackline (Virginia Tech, 2002-11-18)
    Improper pesticide use on crops causes adverse effects on humans, livestock, crops and the environment. Integrated pest management practices emphasize minimal use of pesticides in controlling pests, and their adoption by farmers can reduce the use of pesticides and their adverse impacts. The introduction of IPM CRSP activities in Uganda to institutionalize IPM methods focused on priority crops in the country. This study analyzed adoption of eight IPM technologies on cowpea, sorghum and groundnuts. Low levels of adoption (<25%) were found with five of these technologies while three technologies had high adoption levels (>75%). Results indicate that farmers' participation in on-farm trial demonstrations, accessing agricultural knowledge through researchers, and prior participation in pest training were associated with increased adoption of most IPM practices. Size of farmer's land holdings did not affect IPM adoption suggesting that IPM technologies are mostly scale neutral, implying that IPM dissemination may take place regardless of farmer's scale of operation. Farmers' perception of harmful effects of chemicals did not influence farmers' decisions in regard to IPM technology adoption despite their high knowledge of this issue, suggesting that these farmers did not consider environmental and health impacts important factors when choosing farming practices. Farmers' managerial capabilities were not important in explaining cowpea IPM technology adoption.
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    Health and Environmental Benefits of Reduced Pesticide Use in Uganda: An Experimental Economics Analysis
    Bonabana-Wabbi, Jackline (Virginia Tech, 2007-12-20)
    Two experimental procedures are employed to value both health and environmental benefits from reducing pesticides in Uganda. The first experiment, an incentive compatible auction involves subjects with incomplete information placing bids to avoid consuming potentially contaminated groundnuts/water in a framed field experimental procedure. Three experimental treatments (information, proxy good, and group treatments) are used. Subjects are endowed with a monetary amount (starting capital) equivalent to half the country's per capita daily income (in small denominations). Two hundred and fifty seven respondents were involved in a total of 35 experimental sessions in Kampala and Iganga districts. Tobit model results indicate that subjects place significant positive values to avoid ill health outcomes, although these values vary by region, by treatment and by socio-economic characteristics. Gender differences were important in explaining bidding behavior, with male respondents in both study areas bidding higher to avoid ill health outcomes than females. Consistent with a priori expectation, rural population's average willingness to pay (WTP) to avoid ill health outcomes was lower (by 11.4 percent) than the urban population's WTP possibly reflecting the poverty level in the rural areas and how it translates into reduced regard for health and environmental improvements. Tests of hypotheses suggest (i) providing brief information to subjects just prior to the valuation exercise does not influence bid behavior, (ii) subjects are indifferent to the source of contamination: WTP to avoid health outcomes from potentially contaminated water and groundnuts are not significantly different, and (iii) the classical tendency to free-ride in public goods provision was observed, and this phenomenon was more pronounced in the urban than the rural area. The second experimental procedure involved 132 urban respondents making repeated choices from a set of scenarios described by attributes of water quality, an environmental good. Water quality is represented by profiles of water safety levels at varying costs. Analysis using the conditional (fixed effects) logit showed that urban subjects highly discount unsafe drinking water, and were willing to pay less for safe agricultural water, a result not unexpected considering that the urban population is not directly involved in agricultural activities and thus does not value agricultural water quality as much as drinking water quality. Results also showed that subjects' utility increased with the cost of a water sample (inconsistent with a downward sloping demand curve), suggesting perhaps that they perceived higher costs to be associated with higher water quality. Some theoretically inconsistent results were obtained with choice experiments.
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    Willingness to pay to avoid the consumption of pesticide residues in Uganda: An experimental auction approach
    Bonabana-Wabbi, Jackline; Taylor, Daniel B.; Norton, George W. (African Association of Agricultural Economists, 2014)
    Experimental auctions were used to determine factors affecting the willingness to pay (WTP) of Ugandan rural and urban populations to avoid consuming pesticide residues. Information or type of proxy good did not affect WTP, while education had no effect in the urban population and had a negative effect in the rural population. Male respondents had a higher willingness to pay than female respondents in both samples. Free-riding behaviour was observed in both populations.