Farmers' Willingness to Pay for Agricultural Extension Service, A Case Study of Nubaria's Farmers, Egypt

Aims: This study aimed to depict the current Extension Services (ES) in the new lands as perceived by farmers, also, identify farmers' Willing to Pay (WTP) for the ES.

Study Design: A descriptive design was implemented.

Place and Duration of Study: This study was carried out in Albustan district, Nubaria region in North West of the Delta of Egypt from July to December 2018.

Methodology: A convenient sample of 147 respondents were selected of a proportion of 20 % in three villages. The sampling frame included all farmers regardless of their cropping pattern or farm size including beneficiaries and graduate youths. An interview questionnaire was developed to cover 1) socioeconomic characteristics, 2) current ES, 3) farmers WTP for ES and their terms. Frequency, percentage, average, and range utilized for description purposes, while logistic regression was applied to outline the significant covariates of farmers' WTP.

Results: Findings denote a high level of homogeneity regarding the socioeconomic characteristics, horticulture is the most common pattern (82%). The majority of the respondents (81%) noted that they haven't access to a convenient public ES, and near to half (45%) demanded paid ES. Theyindicated a high level of trust in public providers e.g. universities (67%) and public extension (58%), nonetheless, they noted input suppliers (73%) and agriculture experts (66%) as the most frequent seeking providers. Respondents terms for paid ES was focused on four topics i.e. pricing policy, quality, accountability, and other services to be included with ES. With a preference for providing both knowledge and inputs (40%), fixed price (58%) in cash (56%). Logistic regression showed exposure to the extension activities is significantly associated with farmers' WTP, while late payment for inputs at the end of the season is significantly negative.

Conclusion: Farmers' WTP may contribute to outsourcing and improving ES.