Consumers' willingness to pay for organic agriculture products: a case study of Nepalgunj city, Banke

Abstract

This study was carried in Nepalgunj Sub-Metropolitan City, Nepal to understand awareness of consumers' about organicproduct, consumers' willingness to pay for organic products and socio-economic factors affecting their decision ofwillingness to pay for consumption of organic goods. Total of 200 respondents were selected as sample population.Among total respondents, 85.5% of respondent were aware about organic products, among which only 53% respondentswere well informed about organic products and their importance. Out of 200 randomly selected respondents only 114respondents were willing to pay addition cost or price premium for organic products. Among ten socioeconomicvariables listed only seven variables found to be determinant of willingness to pay premium price for organic agriculturalproducts, which are gender, occupation, income level and education of respondents, and awareness about chemicalresidue absence in organic agriculture products, perception of higher nutrition on organic products and awareness abouthealth benefit from organic products. Result showed that income level and health consciousness are two most importantdetermining factor. So, there is a need to find a way so that more and more people can be made aware about organicagricultural products and provide organic products at reasonable price premium.