The role of locus of control and restrictive norms on farmers’ willingness to pay for climate information services in Senegal, West Africa
Bibliographic record
Abstract
• Farmers are willing to pay above market price for climate information services. • Information interventions effectively raised farmers’ bids for climate services. • High costs and gender norms reduced bid amounts. • Affordable, equitable solutions lead to higher WTP. Climate variability challenges smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Farmers need tools to help them adapt, such as climate information services (CIS) to enhance resilience and agricultural productivity. This study investigates farmers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for seasonal CIS in Senegal’s Sédhiou and Tambacounda regions. The research explores regional differences and the role of socioeconomic, psychological, and gender-related factors. Using a mixed-methods approach, we collected data from 708 farmers through probabilistic random sampling. The Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) mechanism was employed to elicit WTP. Regression and mediation analysis were conducted to assess direct and indirect effects on WTP. The findings reveal an average WTP of 1,560 CFA (2.6 USD) for CIS, with 36.7% of farmers bidding above the market price, suggesting strong demand for CIS. Younger farmers and women showed higher WTP. High production costs and limited access to credit reduced bidding amounts. An experimental information intervention significantly increased bid amounts, highlighting the critical role of awareness in shaping demand. Mediation analysis showed that internal locus of control (LoC) does not significantly mediate WTP, suggesting that farmers’ belief in personal control has little impact on their economic decisions. However, restrictive gender norms negatively mediated WTP, underscoring how gender-based constraints reduce demand for CIS. These findings emphasize the need for targeted policies to promote CIS adoption, including awareness campaigns, behavioral and gender-responsive CIS delivery formats, and affordable financial services. By addressing both economic and behavioral barriers, policymakers can improve resilience and agricultural productivity through improved access to climate information.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.004 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".