Cashew growers’ preferences for market information system design in Benin: a choice experiment approach

In Benin, cashew value chain is a promising sector in terms of its export earnings potential and its contribution to the diversification of the country agricultural sources of income. However, its efficiency is hindered, among others, by information asymmetry issue. Market information system (MIS) has been used as an alternative for addressing such issue. Unfortunately, as in most african countries, most MIS still depend on donor for their financing, hence raising the issue of MIS sustainability once the funding ran out. Stakeholders renewed interest in setting up payment-based MIS. To analyze MIS design through estimating users (i.e. cashew growers) willingness to pay for its characteristics, the study grounds its assumption on consumer utility theory. Therefore, the study assumes that a respondent is willing to pay for MIS services if the service provided matches his preferences. Accordingly analyzing cashew growers’ preferences for MIS characteristics will inform about the appropriate design increasing respondent’s willingness to paying for it. Data were collected from 344 cashew growers. Respondents’ preferences were analyzed using choice experiment approach. The results showed that most growers still doubt about MIS effectiveness. However, analyzing their preferences reveal that respondents are willing to pay to receive information in the evening, once in a week, from their farmer’s association, through their mobile phone and in local language.