Knowledge, attitude, and perceptions and willingness to pay/adopt control strategies along value chains
The aims of Objective 4 are threefold. The first aim is to map the groundnut and maize value chains in the study countries. A thorough understanding of the value chains will enable identification of the public private partnerships (PPPs), as well as entry points for aflatoxin contamination risk and the bottlenecks that would potentially impede the uptake of aflatoxin testing and control strategies. The second aim is to understand the value chain actors’ knowledge, attitudes, perceptions and practices regarding aflatoxin contamination risk; the impacts of aflatoxins on various outcomes (e.g., income, health, trade) and uptake of various testing and control technologies. This information will enable us to recognize the gaps between current and best practices; to understand the current levels of stakeholder awareness about the risk and how best to inform them, and to assess the potential uptake of testing and control technologies given the current attitudes and perceptions. The final aim is to assess the adoption rate of selected aflatoxin testing and control strategies and to estimate value chain actors’ willingness to pay (WTP), if any, for these strategies. This will enable us to identify those stakeholders who would not be adopting these technologies under current circumstances, and determine what would be the incentives needed to ensure their adoption. Information on actors’ WTP for these technologies would constitute the marginal benefits they would derive from the use of these technologies, which can be weighed against the marginal costs of provision of these technologies in the cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analyses that will be conducted in Objective 3.
- Employ the market map tool to understand a) the maize and groundnut value chains.
- Carry out knowledge, attitude, perceptions and practices survey with all the key actors along the value chain.
- Analyze the results of the knowledge, attitude, perceptions and practices survey in order to a) asses the current level of information and awareness regarding aflatoxin testing and control technologies b) to determine the type of information to be provided to increase stakeholders’ awareness and knowledge and the means/media for informing different stakeholders; c) understand the attitudes and perfections that may affect the adoption of control and testing technologies and devising information dissemination tool to ameliorate; and d) compare value chain actor’s current practices with the best practices to find out the gaps that may result in increased risks of aflatoxin contamination.
- Implementation of participatory methods (e.g., focus group discussions, preference ranking, matrix ranking) to understand value chain actors’ knowledge, attitude, perceptions regarding currently available testing and control technologies and to identify the main factors (e.g., cost, accessibility, ease of use) that would enable or impede their adoption.
- The major bottlenecks to adoption of aflatoxin testing technologies and control measures are understood and potential mechanisms to ameliorate these bottlenecks (such as effective information and awareness campaigns, certification of tested produce) are recommended to the decision makers including the Ministries of Agriculture and Health in the study countries and AGRA.
- Information is disseminated to the key value chain actors, the Ministries of Agriculture and Health in the study countries and AGRA on the critical intervention points and testing technologies and control measures are taken up by stakeholders along the value chain.
- Implement stated preference studies (such as choice experiments/conjoint utility and contingent valuation surveys) to estimate key value chain actors’ willingness to adopt and willingness to pay (WTP) for various aflatoxin control strategies and testing technologies.
- Use econometric methods to estimate key value chain actors’ rate of adoption and WTP for different control strategies and testing technologies.
Decision makers understand stakeholders’ adoption and valuation of different control strategies and technologies. This information could be used by the private sector to set the optional price for the willing adopters of these technologies, and by the public sector to target the various interventions (such as subsidies, information campaigns, certification) to encourage increased rates of adoption.