World Research Journal of Agricultural Sciences

Vol. 7(2), pp. 221-229, June, 2020. © www.premierpublishers.org. ISSN: 2326-3997

Research Article

Consumers’ Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Bio-

Fortified Vitamin-A Garri in South Western, Nigeria: A
Conjoint Analysis and Double-Hurdle Model Estimation
1Kolapo Adetomiwa*, 2Abimbola Esther Iseoluwa
1,2Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Osun State, Nigeria

The level of malnutrition in Nigeria is very alarming and is on the rise. Carrying out a study on
consumers’ consumption of staple foods with vitamin A source is of importance. The study
specifically examined consumers’ preferences and willingness to pay for bio-fortified vitamin A
garri in South-Western, Nigeria. Data were sourced from two hundred respondents through a well-
structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, conjoint analysis and
craggs’ double-hurdle model. The result of the analysis showed that the mean age of the
respondents were 51(±18.37). The preferred attributes of bio-fortified vitamin A garri were low or
medium price, good taste, often availability, high vitamin A content, easiness to prepare, good
packaging and high B-carotene content. A higher proportion of the consumers were willing to pay
for bio-fortified vitamin A garri although at a lower amount. In the first hurdle, variables such as
education (0.0233), household size (-0.2177) and awareness (0.0096) at (p<0.10), (p<0.01) and
(p<0.10) respectively significantly affect the willingness to pay for bio-fortified vitamin A garri in
the study area. In the second hurdle, age (0.0533) and perception (1.2807) of consumers at (p<0.05)
and p<0.05 respectively affect the amount they were willing to pay for bio-fortified garri in the
study area. It was therefore recommended that there should be an increased sensitization
program in form of education and awareness about the medicinal and nutritional importance of
consumption of bio-fortified vitamin A garri so that the rate of consumption can increase in the
study area.
Key words: Preferences, Bio-fortified vitamin A garri, Willingness to pay, Double-hurdle, South Western.

INTRODUCTION

About 2 billion people were estimated to be suff ering from
deficiency in micronutrient in the world (Qaim et al., 2007).
However, one of the common forms of micronutrient
malnutrition is vitamin A deficiency (VAD). VAD impairs
growth and cognitive development, causes blindness and
also increases the risk of other infections that might lead
to death especially among pregnant and lactating women
and children in Nigeria. Vitamin A deficiency is common
among the poor households in developing countries like
Nigeria who largely depend on the consumption of staple
food crops to meet their nutritional needs. Even though
staple food crops are relatively cheap and rich in calories,
they essentially lack vitamins and minerals required for the
body growth.
Vitamin A deficiency has been posing a threat to human
survival for a very long time and the world has put a lot of
measures in place to combat this threat. According to Rice
et al. (2004), several international organizations in the
world such as United States Agency for International
Development (USAID), United Nations Children Education
Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO) among
others have been tirelessly working on how to upsurge this
menace for a long period of time till present. Many special
intervention programs have been implemented in
*Corresponding Author: Kolapo Adetomiwa,
Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of
Agriculture, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Osun
State, Nigeria. Email: kolapoadetomiwa@gmail.com
Co-Author Email: estherabim@gmail.com

Consumers’ Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Bio-Fortified Vitamin-A Garri in South Western, Nigeria: A Conjoint Analysis and Double-Hurdle Model Estimation
Adetomiwa and Iseoluwa 222
developing countries, Nigeria inclusive. One of such
intervention program is the more recently biofortification –
a term used to describe a breeding strategy that aims to
increase the micronutrient content of staple food crops
(Nestel et al., 2006).
Through biofortification, staple food crops that are
enriched with beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A in
the body, have been bred. Bio-fortified cassava is one of
these crops. The production of biofortified vitamin-A
cassava started in 2011 with the intervention of the
International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) which
were funded by Harvest Plus program. Five years after the
intervention program, statistics revealed that over 1million
of Nigerian farming households grows yellow cassava
varieties that contains substantial quantities of vitamin-A
even after processing. In Nigeria diets today, yellow bio-
fortified cassava represents additional source of vitamin A
(Saltzman et al., 2014).
In Nigeria, vitamin-A cassava after processing is
predominantly consumed as garri which means “free
flowing creamy white or yellow granular partially
gelatinized flour produced from cassava” (Cardoso et al.,
2005). Garri is produced through the process of peeling,
washing, grating, bagging and dehydration (with the aid of
hydraulic press), fermentation, sieving, frying, cooling and
packaging. Garris longevity and also ease of preparation
(as compared to other cassava food products) makes it a
widely consumed food (Sanni et al., 2008). Preferences for
garri varies across regions and ethnic groups in Nigeria. It
has been shown that there are positive contributions of bio-
fortified vitamin-A garri in human diet as it provides up to
40% of vitamin A required, rich in beta carotene with a
better source of energy as compared to local white garri;
food like vitamin-A cassava moimoi fortified with beans
and cassava custard is of good quality for children; pro-
vitamin-A eba/garri (natural, without additional oil) has a
good curling quality in lafun/eba (Talsma et al., 2016).
However, despite the level of awareness and information
sources to consumers, the consumption of vitamin A rich
garri is yet to be fully accepted in Nigeria as noted by
Oparinde et al. (2016). According to Oparinde et al. (2016),
consumers were better informed although they were ready
to pay corresponding to the level of satisfaction they tend
to derived from the consumption of bio-fortified cassava.
The willingness to pay for bio-fortified garri can be
relatively aligned with their preferences for the product.
Consumers tend to prefer a particular product based on
the attributes of the product in which bio-fortified yellow
garri is not an exemption as it is relatively expensive more
than the local white garri in Nigeria. Furthermore, there
have been a noticeable incidence of vitamin-A deficiency
among consumers in the study area which necessitated
\the need for the consumption of vitamin-A garri as noted
by Oparinde et al. (2016).
Consumers’ Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Bio-Fortified Vitamin-A Garri in South Western, Nigeria: A Conjoint Analysis and Double-Hurdle Model Estimation
In Nigeria, studies (Oparinde et al. (2016); Ogunmola and
Adekanmbi, (2020); Robert et al., (2019) were conducted
on consumers acceptance of bio-fortified foods in Nigeria.
However, none of these studies examined the consumers
preference for bio-fortified vitamin A garri as it relates to
willingness to pay for this product, hence the need for this
study. The study specifically examined the consumer’s
preferences for bio-fortified vitamin A garri in the study
area; examined the level of awareness of the consumers
as regarding bio-fortified vitamin A garri and also their
willingness to pay for the bio-fortified vitamin A garri in the
study area.
Theoretical framework
The review of literature (Oltmanet al. (2014); Okoffo et al.,
2016) explains the techniques of estimating consumers’
preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for agricultural
produce. Conjoint analysis were preferred for measuring
consumers preference while (i) contingent valuation
method (ii) the revealed preference theory and (iii) a
combination of the use of theory along with microeconomic
household variables and market variables (used to
indirectly estimate the appropriate market premium) are
the techniques for measuring consumer’s willingness to
pay.
The approach to consumer theory proposed by Lancaster
(1996) provides a theoretical support for conjoint analysis.
The approach proposes that consumers derive utility not
from goods themselves, but rather from the attributes or
features that the goods have. Therefore, the basic rule
underlying conjoint analysis is that goods can be
exhaustively described by the levels of a set of attributes
or characteristics and consumers’ preferences for goods
are assessed by evaluating the importance of product
attributes to consumers Oltmanet al. (2014). Conjoint
analysis is used to examine the factors that influence
customers’ purchasing decisions. Conjoint analysis
decomposes the consumers’ responses into components,
based on qualitative attributes of the goods. Consumers'
preferences for goods are evaluated by allowing
consumers to rank alternatives, given alternative
combinations of attribute levels Oltmanet al. (2014). A
numerical part-worth utility value is estimated for each
level of each attribute and this indicates the relative
importance of that level to the respondents. Large part-
worth utilities are assigned to the most preferred levels,
and small part-worth utilities are assigned to the least
preferred levels. The attributes with the largest part-worth
utility range are considered the most important in
predicting preference. The measure of the importance of
an attribute is then derived from the range of the part-worth
over the levels of that attribute Oltmanet al. (2014). The
total worth (value) of a good to consumers can be
estimated by adding the part-worth for various
combinations of attribute levels.
 World Res. J. Agric. Sci. 223

The elementary part-worth conjoint analysis model is vitamin-A garri. The two equations of the double hurdle are
represented by assumed to be independent.
Ux=∑𝑘𝑖 𝑗=1 𝛼 ijXij ……….……………… (1)
Where Ux =overall utility of an alternative;
αij = the part-worth contribution or utility associated with the METHODOLOGY
jth level (j, j=1, 2….ki) of the ith attribute (i, i=1, 2….m); ki
=number of levels of attribute I; m =number of attributes; Area of Study
xij =1 if the jth level of the ith attribute is present and=0
otherwise. The study was carried out in South-Western region of
Nigeria. The South-West region of Nigeria represents a
The basic conjoint problem is to estimate the part-worth geographical area covering latitude 60 North and 40 South.
that best explain the overall preference judgments made The South-Western region of Nigeria comprises of six
by respondents and ordered logit regression is a natural states including Osun, Ekiti, Oyo, Ondo, Lagos and Ogun
and relatively straight-forward means with which to State. The region is bounded in the north by Kogi and
estimate the part-worth. The advantages of the regression- Kwara States, in the South by Atlantic Ocean, in the west
based methods are their simplicity and the wide availability by Republic of Benin and in the East by Edo and Delta
of software with which to perform estimations. If all the State. The South western region of Nigeria can boost of
appropriate normality assumptions are satisfied, then different varieties of arable food crops since the climatic
regression may be the most efficient. conditions support the production of various food crops
including cassava, maize, groundnut etc. A large
The basic conjoint problem is to estimate the part-worth proportion of the bio-fortified cassava were being
that best explain the overall preference judgments made produced and processed in South Western region of
by respondents and ordered logit regression is a natural Nigeria, as the region was a major target for the production
and relatively straight-forward means with which to of the bio-fortified cassava, thus there are many
estimate the part-worth. The advantages of the regression- consumers of the bio-fortified vitamin A garri in the region,
based methods are their simplicity and the wide availability hence the choice of the study area for the study.
of software with which to perform estimations. If all the
appropriate normality assumptions are satisfied, then
regression may be the most efficient.
As regarding the consumer’s willingness to pay, (i)
contingent valuation method (ii) the revealed preference
theory and (iii) a combination of the use of theory along
with microeconomic household variables and market
variables (used to indirectly estimate the appropriate
market premium) are the techniques for measuring
consumer’s willingness to pay. However, the contingent
valuation method is vastly recommended in situations
where there is no or little market information and has been
widely adopted and used by many researchers
(Vandeveer and Loehman, 1994; Nakanyike, 2014; Taneja
et al., 2014; Okoffo et al., 2016; Oyawole et al., 2016;
Adekunle et al., 2016). This is because it helps to motivate
the concept of choice in a market situation as respondents
have the opportunity to accept or reject the product. In the
process of contingent valuation method, techniques such
as Tobit, Heckman, double-hurdle and infrequency of
purchase models can be utilized. Several studies used Fig 1: Map of South Western, Nigeria
either the double hurdle model or Heckman’s sample
selection model in determining the willingness to pay for Sampling procedures and sample size
agricultural goods (Cragg, 1971; Musah, 2013; Khan and
Damalas, 2015; Okoffo et al., 2016). The double-hurdle Multistage sampling procedures were employed for the
model was adopted in this study because of its advantage study. The first stage involved purposive selection of two
over the Heckman’s sample selection model. The double States including Oyo and Osun States due to a large
hurdle is used in a situation where an event may occur or availability bio-fortified cassava producers/processor in the
not; and when it does, it takes on continuous positive State. The second stage involved the purposive selection
values (Gabre-Madhin et al., 2003). It is assumed that the of two Local Government Areas because of the
consumers are faced with hurdles in their decision-making concentration of bio-fortified cassava producers/
process. Hence, the decision to pay is made first, followed processors in the areas. The third stage involved random
by the decision on how much to pay for bio-fortified selection of two communities from each of the selected

Consumers’ Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Bio-Fortified Vitamin-A Garri in South Western, Nigeria: A Conjoint Analysis and Double-Hurdle Model Estimation
Adetomiwa and Iseoluwa 224
LGAs. At the fourth stage, twenty-five households were
randomly selected from each community to make a total of
200 (two hundred) respondents. Data for this study was
collected from 200 respondents who were adult members
of the houses interviewed. Primary data were used for the
study. The primary data were sourced from cross-sectional
survey of bio-fortified vitamin A consumers in the study
area with the aid of well-structured questionnaire to cover
information about the socioeconomic characteristics of
respondent, preference for the product and amount willing
to pay etc. Data were collected during the period of June,
2019- Oct, 2019.
Analytical techniques
The data were analyzed using descriptive, conjoint
analysis and double-hurdle model.
Descriptive statistics
Descriptive statistics were used to described the socio-
economic characteristics of the bio-fortified vitamin A garri
consumers and their level of awareness in the study area.
Conjoint (Part-worth Model)
Consumer’s preference for bio-fortified vitamin A garri
consumed was captured using conjoint analysis. Conjoint
analysis is an experimental approach that reveals the
concealed rules individuals employed in making trade-off
decisions between goods. It assumes that consumers view
a good as a bundle of certain attributes, with different
levels. Individuals’ preferences are thereby formed by
combining different attributes and levels. For every level of
each attribute of interest, a numerical ‘part-worth utility’
value is computed. The sum of the part-worth utilities for
each product is an estimate of the utility for that good. The
empirical model is specified as follows:
Rj = β0+∑𝑡𝑝=1 𝛽 p(Xjp) + εj………………………………… (2)
where Rj is the ranking evaluation of the respondent
consumer for bio-fortified garri j with consumption
attributes p, β0 is a utility constant, t is the total number of
attribute levels; βp is the part-worth function of pth of each
of different attributes; Xjp is the level of pth attribute in the
jth bio-fortified garri and εj is a stochastic error term.
Ordinary least square regression was used for the
estimation of coefficients of each rank of the bio-fortified
garri attributes identified.
There are three (3) basic steps involved in the estimation
of preferences using conjoint analysis. First, relevant
vitamin A garri attributes and their particular levels are
defined in a way consistent with the consumers’
understanding of the vitamin A garri. Second, an
appropriate experimental design and survey instrument
were constructed to collect the conjoint data. At this stage,
a set of hypothetical products were defined by combining
product attributes at various levels. Consumers were then
asked to evaluate their overall preference for selected
Consumers’ Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Bio-Fortified Vitamin-A Garri in South Western, Nigeria: A Conjoint Analysis and Double-Hurdle Model Estimation
hypothetical products. The final step of CA involves the
analysis of the consumers’ utilities for various vitamin A
garri attributes. In implementing the objective of the study
and following conjoint procedure, a focus group discussion
(FGD) was held with vitamin A garri consumers in the
study area to elicit information on the attributes they look
for when buying vitamin A garri for consumption. Seven
major attributes were specified which are; price, taste,
availability, vitamin A content, easiness to prepare,
packaging and B-carotene content (Table 1). From the
FGD, seven three-level attributes were relevant for this
study.
Table 1: Attributes and Corresponding Ranks
Attributes Ranks
Price Low, Medium, High
Taste Good, Moderate, Poor
Availability Often, Occasional, Rare
Vitamin A High, Moderate, Low
Easy to prepare Yes, No
Packaging Good, Moderate, Poor
B-carotene High, Moderate, Low
A full factorial design would involve 36 (3 x 3x 2 x 3)
hypothetical product combinations. Because of the
complexity associated with a larger number of choice sets
in the design which could affect vitamin A garri consumers’
decision, orthogonal fractional factorial design was used to
reduce the combination. The SPSS version 20 software
was used to design orthogonal attribute combinations and
two holdout additional combinations for validation. From
the orthogonal results, plan cards were generated, which
formed the basis of the questionnaire that was
administered to vitamin A garri consumers to rank their
preferences.
Cragg’s Double-Hurdle empirical model
The first equation in the Double-Hurdle relates to the
willingness to pay for bio-fortified vitamin A garri. A probit
regression on the willingness to pay or not is modeled as:
WTP = 1 if WTP >0 and WTP = 0 if WTP ≤ 0
WTP = zi 𝛼 + εi ………………………………………… (3)
WTP is a dichotomous variable which assumes a value of
1 and o otherwise, z is a vector of consumer
characteristics, 𝛼 is a vector of parameters and εi is the
error term.
The empirical model for bio-fortified vitamin A consumer’s
willingness to pay is specified for this study as;
WTP = 𝛽𝑜 + 𝛽1 Age + 𝛽2 Gender + 𝛽3 Mstatus + 𝛽4
Education + 𝛽5 Household size + 𝛽6 Income +𝛽7
Awareness + 𝛽8 Perception + 𝛽9 Price + εi …………………. (4)
WTP is the probability that an ith consumer is willing to pay
for bio-fortified garri. 𝛽𝑖 the coefficients of the explanatory
variables, εi is the error term.
The second hurdle which estimates the amount (premium)
consumers are willing to pay is estimated using a
regression truncated at zero. It is expressed as;
 World Res. J. Agric. Sci. 225

WTPamti = WTPamti*
if WTP amti* > 0 and WTPamti* = 0 if otherwise Awareness of bio-fortified vitamin A Garri
WTPamt* = χi β + ui…………………………………… (5)
Presented in Table 3 is the distribution of respondents by
Where, WTPamt* is the observed response on how much awareness. Majority (71.5%) of the respondents sampled
consumers are willing to pay for bio-fortified vitamin A were aware of the existence of bio-fortified vitamin A garri
garri. χ is the vector of consumer’s characteristics, β is a in the study area. This shows that they were better inform
vector of parameters and ui is the error term which is about bio-fortified vitamin A garri in the study area. Out of
randomly distributed. the respondents sampled, about 49% had tasted bio-
The empirical model of the truncated regression model is fortified vitamin A garri before which implies that
specified for this study as; considerable number of people were consuming bio-
WTPamti = 𝛽𝑜 + 𝛽1 Age + 𝛽2 Gender + 𝛽3 Mstatus + 𝛽4 fortified vitamin A garri in the study area. Among the
Education + 𝛽5 Household size + 𝛽6 Income +𝛽7 consumers who had tasted bio-fortified vitamin A garri
before, about (93.88%) of them preferred the product.
Awareness + 𝛽8 Perception + 𝛽9 Price + εi ………………… (6)
Majority (94.9%) of the respondents who had tasted bio-
where WTPamti is the amount an ith a consumer is willing fortified vitamin A garri felt satisfied with the product which
to pay, βi are parameters to be estimated and εi is the error implies that they derive maximum satisfaction from the
term. product. Large proportions (92.86%) of the respondents
who had tasted the product before ascertained that they
Description of the explanatory variables are as follows;
are ready to purchase bio-fortified vitamin A garri in the
AGE (years); GENDER (male = 1, otherwise = 0);
future. This indicates that they were ready to pay premium
MARITAL STATUS (married = 1, otherwise = 0),
for bio-fortified vitamin A garri in the future which might be
EDUCATION (years); HOUSEHOLD SIZE (number);
due to the high satisfactions they derived from the
INCOME (naira); AWARENESS (aware = 1, otherwise =0);
consumption of the produce. This implies that the level of
PERCEPTION (good = 1, otherwise = 0); PRICE (naira).
education a consumer possess about the nutritive value of
the bio-fortified vitamin A garri might influence the decision
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION to pay for the product.
The socio-economic characteristics of the consumers of
bio-fortified garri were presented in Table 2. The mean age Table 3: Distribution of the respondents by awareness
of the consumers was 51(±18.37). This implies that the Variables Frequency Percentage (%)
bio-fortified vit-A garri consumers were in the age where Awareness of bio-fortified vit-A garri
vitamin A is required for sight improvement, helping in Yes 143 71.5
outer lining such as skin replacement and normal No 57 28.5
functioning of internal organs and bio-fortified garri can Total 200 100.0
serve this purpose. About 61% of the sampled Ever tasted bio-fortified vit-A garri
respondents were male which might be due to the fact that Yes 98 49.0
the respondents majorly surveyed were household heads. No 102 51.0
About 79% of the respondents surveyed were married Don’t Know -- --
which shows that the respondents have responsibilities. Total 200 100.0
The mean years of formal education in the study area were Preference for bio-fortified vit-A garri
13.43 (±6.31) which revealed that the respondents were Yes 92 93.88
literate and thus expected to influence their decision to No 4 4.08
consume bio-fortified vit-A garri. The mean household size Don’t Know 2 2.04
were 7.19 (±5.12) which shows that they had relatively Total 98 100.00
large household size in the study area. The mean annual Feeling satisfaction
income was 73647.41(±34589.41) of the respondents Satisfied 93 94.9
which implies that respondents in the study area were Not satisfied 5 5.1
middle income group.
Undecided -- --
Table 2: Socioeconomic Characteristics of Bio-fortified Vit- Total 98 100.0
A Garri consumers Consumers’ level of satisfaction and future
Variables Bio-fortified garri consumers purchase of bio-fortified vit-A garri
Age (years) 51(±18.37) Yes 91 92.86
Male (%) 61.00 No 7 7.14
Married (%) 79.00 Total 98 100.00
Formal education (years) 13.43 (±6.31)
Household size (#) 7.19 (±5.12)
Income (#) 73647.41(±34589.41)
Source: Data Analysis, 2019

Consumers’ Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Bio-Fortified Vitamin-A Garri in South Western, Nigeria: A Conjoint Analysis and Double-Hurdle Model Estimation
Adetomiwa and Iseoluwa 226

Consumers’ preference for bio-fortified vitamin A garri Table 4: Part-worth estimates for bio-fortified vitamin A
using part worth utilities garri
Attributes Rank Part-worth Relative
The part worth estimates for the bio-fortified vit-A garri estimates importance
attributes were presented in Table 4 including the relative (%)
importance attached to the attributes identified. Price High 0.027 14
Considering the relative importance outputs of the conjoint Moderate 0.036*
analysis, Vitamin A (26%) was found to be the most Low 0.036*
important attributes for the consumers in the study area. Taste Good 1.046* 17
B-carotene (21%), taste (17%), price (14%), Availability
Moderate 0.091
(9%), Packaging (8%) and easy to prepare (5%) are the
Poor 0.003
other attributes in order of importance in case of
Availability Often 0.291* 9
consumers preferences for bio-fortified vitamin A garri in
the study area. In this case, consumers give more Occasional 0.049
credence to Vitamin A content of the garri, B-carotene Rare 0.031
content, taste, price and availability of the bio-fortified Vitamin A High 0.472* 26
vitamin A garri in the study area. This might probably due Moderate 0.019
to high level of awareness of the nutritional contents of the Low 0.007
product in the study area. Easy to Yes 1.204* 5
prepare
Considering the utility estimate of the bio-fortified vit-A No 0.256
garri attributes, the part-worth for “medium and low” price, Packaging Good 0.318* 8
“good” taste, “often” availability, “High” vitamin a content, Moderate 0.051
“Yes” easy to prepare, “Good” packaging and “high” B- Poor 0.002
carotene content were significant. B-carotene High 1.417* 21
Moderate 0.431
The part-worth estimate for the medium and low price were
significantly high which shows that consumers of bio- Low 0.072
fortified vit-A garri will prefer a low or medium price in other Source: Data Analysis, 2019
for them to continually be able to purchase the bio-fortified
vit-A garri in the study area.
Table 5: Consumers’ willingness to pay for Bio-fortified
As regarding taste, “good” taste was significant. This vitamin A garri
implies that consumers will prefer the bio-fortified vit-A Variables Frequency Percentage (%)
garri if they perceived the taste to be good. They tend to Willingness to pay
continually consume the product if the bio-fortified vit-A Yes 167 83.5
garri remains good. No 33 16.5
Total
Considering the availability of the bio-fortified vit-A garri, Source: Data Analysis, 2019
consumers will prefer the product if the bio-fortified vit-A
garri is “often” available. In a situation where the product is Table 6: Respondents’ distribution of prices willing to pay
rarely available, it will affect consumer preference for the for bio-fortified vitamin A garri
bio-fortified vit-A garri in the study area.
Amount Unwilling
willing Willing respondents (N=167) Respon-
As regarding the vitamin A content of the bio-fortified vit-A
to pay dents
garri, consumers prefer a “high” vitamin A content as this
(₦/kg) (N=33)
greatly influence their preference for the bio-fortified vit-A
Number of % Min. Max. Mean
garri over local white garri. The vitamin A content of bio-
respondents (₦/kg) (₦/kg) (₦/kg)
fortified vit-A garri is around 57% as compared with local
150-250 88 52.7 150 240 190
white garri (17%) (Oparinde et al., 2016).
251-350 49 29.3 260 350 310
The consumers will prefer the bio-fortified vit-A garri if it is 351-450 19 11.4 370 440 390
easy to prepare and also, if the bio-fortified vit-A garri has ≥450 11 6.6 480 550 500
a “good” package. Consumers tend to be influence by Average ₦/kg 240.10/kg (USD 0.71/kg)
good packaging as its normally proves to them that the WTP
content is good irrespective of whether they have a Source: Data Analysis, 2019
background knowledge of the product before or not. A
“high” B-carotene content of the bio-fortified vit-A garri
were preferred by the consumers in the study area.

Consumers’ Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Bio-Fortified Vitamin-A Garri in South Western, Nigeria: A Conjoint Analysis and Double-Hurdle Model Estimation
 World Res. J. Agric. Sci. 227

Willingness to pay and amount willing to pay for bio- the household head might decide to go for local white garri
fortified vitamin A garri instead of the bio-fortified vitamin A garri due to limited
resources within the household.
Consumers’ willingness to pay and the amounts willing to
pay for bio-fortified vitamin A garri were presented on Table 7: Parameter estimates of Double-hurdle regression
Table 5 and 6 respectively. From table 5, Large proportion Variables First hurdle (Probit Second hurdle
(83.5%) of the respondents were willing to pay for bio- regression) (Truncated reg.)
fortified vitamin A garri in the study area. Furthermore, Coefficients Std. Err. Coefficients Std
from Table 6 about (52.7%) of the respondents were willing Err.
to pay between ₦150 and ₦250 per kilogram of bio-fortified Age 0.0003 0.0039 0.0533** 0.0227
vitamin A garri, about 29.3% were willing to pay between (0.10) (2.34)
₦251 and ₦350 per kilogram of bio-fortified vitamin A garri, Gender -0.0100 0.0069 0.0104 0.0142
11.4% were willing to pay between ₦351 and ₦450 per kg (-1.45) (0.73)
while only 6.6% of the respondents were willing to pay Marital 0.0032 0.0064 0.0326 0.0329
above ₦451 per kilogram of bio-fortified vitamin A garri in status (0.51) (1.49)
the study area. The minimum amount the respondents Education 0.0233* 0.0124 0.0505 0.0535
were willing to pay was ₦150 while the maximum amount (1.87) (0.94)
the respondents were willing to pay per kilogram of the bio- Household -0.2177*** 0.0812 -0.0039 0.0252
fortified vitamin A garri was ₦500. The average amount the size (-2.68) (-0.16)
respondents were willing to pay per kilogram of bio-fortified Income -0.0504 0.1204 0.5804 0. 3616
vitamin A garri was ₦240.10/kg (USD 0.71/kg). (-0.42) (1.61)
Awareness 0.0096* 0.0058 -0.0389 0.0549
The implication of this result is that despite the fact that the (1.69) (-0.71)
respondents were willing to pay for bio-fortified vitamin A
Perception -0.2097 0.1567 1.2807** 0.6345
garri, they were not ready to pay a very high amount of
(-1.34) (2.02)
money for the product. Those that were not ready to pay
Price -0.2034 0.2964 0.0610 0.4503
linked their decision to lack of essential information on the
(-1.11) (0.14)
nutritional and health benefits of the bio-fortified vitamin A
Constant 1.8939*** 0.7157 0.4676 1.4513
garri in the study area.
(2.65) (0.32)
Factors influencing consumers’ willingness to pay Regression diagnostics
and the amounts willing to pay for bio-fortified vitamin Log-likelihood -438.2910
Prob > X2 0.000
A garri
Pseudo R2 0.6813
Maximum likelihood R2 0.436
The factors influencing consumers’ willingness to pay and
the amount they are willing to pay per kilogram for bio-
fortified vitamin A garri were presented in Table 7. The log- Figures in parentheses are t-values; ***= significant at 1%,
likelihood function of the model is -438.2910, the Pseudo **= significant at 5%, *= significant at 10%.
R2 was 0.6813 and the log-likelihood ration was significant Source: Data Analysis, 2019.
at 1% level of probability which implies that all the Awareness was positive and significant at 10% level of
explanatory variables in the model jointly influence the probability. This implies that the decision to pay for bio-
probability that an average consumer is willing to pay for fortified vitamin A garri were jointly influence by the level of
the consumption of bio-fortified garri in the study area. awareness an average consumer had about the product.
Thus, a unit increase in the level of awareness will
From the first hurdle (Probit regression) result present in increase the decision to pay for bio-fortified vitamin A garri
Table 7, education was positive and significant at 10% by 0.9% in the study area. This indicates that the decision
level of probability. This implies that the level of education to pay for the bio-fortified vitamin A garri might increase if
a consumer possess about the nutritive value of the bio- the average consumer is better informed about the
fortified vitamin A garri might influence the decision to pay product. This agree with Ogunmola and Adekanbi (2020)
for the product. Thus, a unit increase in education will who ascertained that awareness from extension services
increase the probability to pay for bio-fortified vitamin A and friends significantly influence the decision to pay for
garri by 2.33% in the study area. Furthermore, the pro-Vit-A garri in Ido Local government of Oyo State.
household size was negative and significant at 1% level of
probability. This implies that household size of the Although, not significant, price of the bio-fortified vitamin A
consumer had a non-linear relationship with the decision garri was negative. This complied with the economic
to pay for bio-fortified vitamin A garri in the study area. This theory, the higher the price, the lower the quantity
might be due to the fact that as household increases in demanded. Thus, an average consumer might decide not
size more mouth is needed to be fed, hence the need to to pay for the bio-fortified vitamin a garri if the price is
ration the available resources within the household. Thus, greatly higher than what they could afford thus affecting
their decision to consume the product in the study area.

Consumers’ Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Bio-Fortified Vitamin-A Garri in South Western, Nigeria: A Conjoint Analysis and Double-Hurdle Model Estimation
Adetomiwa and Iseoluwa 228
In the second hurdle (truncated regression), age and
consumers’ perception of the bio-fortified vitamin A garri
significantly influence the decision to pay a certain amount
for the bio-fortified vitamin A garri in the study area.
Age was positive and significant at 5% level of probability.
This implies that the decision of the pay a certain amount
for bio-fortified vitamin A garri is influenced by age. A unit
increase in age of an average consumer will increase the
decision to pay a certain amount by 5.3% in the study area.
This might be due to the fact that as age increases
purchasing power might also increases and older people
tend to increase their source of income thus be able to pay
for bio-fortified vitamin A garri in the study area.
Consumers’ perception of the bio-fortified vitamin A garri
was positive and significant at 5% level of probability. This
implies that an average consumer who perceived the
importance of consuming the bio-fortified vitamin A garri
tend to pay a certain amount for the bio-fortified vitamin A
garri in the study area since they have a good perception
of the product in the study area.
CONCLUSION
The study specifically concluded that household heads in
the study area were relatively older adult who had enough
experience. The study concluded that average consumers
in the study area fell within middle income group based on
their annual income level. The rate of awareness of the
bio-fortified vitamin A garri was relatively high in the study
area although this thus not translate to consuming the
product. The study concluded that consumers who had
tasted bio-fortified vitamin A garri in the time past got
maximum satisfaction from the product. A higher
proportion of the consumers were willing to pay for bio-
fortified vitamin A garri although at a lower amount.
Variables such as education, household size and
awareness significantly affect the willingness to pay for
bio-fortified vitamin A garri in the study area. In the second
hurdle, the study concluded that age and perception of
consumers affect the amount they were willing to pay for
bio-fortified garri in the study area. It was therefore
recommended that agencies, stakeholders and private
organization should increase the awareness about the
availability of bio-fortified vitamin A garri and should be
targeted towards a larger population in the study area in
other for the consumption of the bio-fortified vitamin A garri
to be equally distributed among the consumers. Also, there
should be an increase sensitization program inform of
awareness about the medicinal and nutritional importance
of consumption of bio-fortified vitamin A garri so that the
rate of consumption can increase in the study area.
COMPETING INTERESTS
Authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Consumers’ Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Bio-Fortified Vitamin-A Garri in South Western, Nigeria: A Conjoint Analysis and Double-Hurdle Model Estimation
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Accepted 17 June 2020

Citation: Adetomiwa K, Iseoluwa AE (2020). Consumers’

Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Bio-Fortified
Vitamin-A Garri in South Western, Nigeria: A Conjoint
Analysis and Double-Hurdle Model Estimation. World
Research Journal of Agricultural Sciences, 7(2): 221-229.

Copyright: © 2020 Adetomiwa and Iseoluwa. This is an

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Consumers’ Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Bio-Fortified Vitamin-A Garri in South Western, Nigeria: A Conjoint Analysis and Double-Hurdle Model Estimation