Evaluation of Urban Consumer Willingness to Pay for Organic Leafy Vegetables

ABSTRACT

Excessive application of chemical fertilizers and the remnants of pesticides in food products can be a threat to people’s health. Technological developments and changes in lifestyle and food regime have increased the frequency of diseases such as cancer. Modern agriculture systems have been criticized and a consensus reached for introduction of organic agriculture to increase efficiency and reduce damage to the environment and public health. Consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for organic leafy vegetables was studied with a contingent valuation approach in Rasht City, Iran. Among the studied variables, income, education level, and family history of cancer positively and significantly affected consumers’ WTP for organic leafy vegetables. Mean WTP was 4.22% higher for organic leafy vegetables than for conventional vegetables. There was a positive attitude toward using organic leafy vegetables and farmers could benefit from producing organic products.

Keywords:

• Leafy vegetables
• contingent valuation approach
• logit model
• organic farming

Funding

Financial support as Grant No. 4.5830 was provided by Rasht Branch, Islamic Azad University.

Additional information

Funding

Financial support as Grant No. 4.5830 was provided by Rasht Branch, Islamic Azad University.