Farmers’ Willingness to pay for Local wheat Conservation: The case of Syadeberna Wayu Woreda, Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia

xii FARMERS’ WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR LOCAL WHEAT CONSERVATION: THE CASE IN SYADEBERNA WAYU WOREDA, AMHARA REGIENAL STATE, ETHIOPIA ABSTRACT Ethiopian agriculture is characterized by mainly subsistence and rain fed based agriculture dominated by smallholder farmers. Livelihood of these farmers is highly vulnerable to climate variability every year that contributes to biodiversity loss and food insecurity. Local wheat conservation is crucial to reduce the vulnerability to climate change. This research is designed to estimate farmers’ mean willingness to pay and identify the determinants of local wheat conservation in a community seed bank. A two stage sampling technique was used to collect data from 201 randomly selected households using structured interview. To estimate the mean WTP, the study used seemingly unrelated bivariate probit model and the probit model used to estimate the determinant factors affecting willingness to pay for local wheat conservation. The response of households’ for scenario indicated that, the mean willingness to pay for local wheat conservation found to be 353.84 and 249.74 birr per year for five years for double bound and open ended formats respectively. The respective total aggregate value of local wheat conservation in community seed bank in the study area (Siyadeberna Wayu Woreda) was computed to be 4,212,111.36 and 2,943,185.9 birr per annum for five years respectively. The results of the probit model have shown that literacy status, local wheat producers, farm income, livestock possession were positively and significantly affect WTP. While extension contact and initial bid had negative and significant effects on households WTP. Therefore, policy and program intervention designed to address local wheat conservation problems in the study area have needed to take in to account these characteristics.