Abstract:
Common beans are one of the most important food and cash crops for most Malawians. The
insufficient production of the crop in the country coupled with low yields has made scientists
give much interest to the crop so that they can address the constraints to the productivity
problems. In this regard, breeders have been engaged in the development and release of
improved varieties of common beans which in most cases are disease resistant, high yielding,
drought resistant, and fast cooking. Therefore it is the interest of this study to find the reasons
why productivity of the crop is still low despite the release of the improved varieties.
The study adopted contingent valuation (CV), a method frequently used to assess willingnessto-
pay of people for non-market goods or services and this was applied to assess farmer’s
willingness-to-pay for the new improved bean seed varieties which are high yielding. Double
bounded dichotomous choice with an open ended follow-up format was used to obtain the
household’s willingness-to-pay. In addition; the study reviewed the existing dissemination
channels of bean seed to make recommendations with regard to seed supply.
Descriptive statistics from the 132 households interviewed shows that the structural
constraints to seed acquisition are compounded by farmers’ poverty. Otherwise, most farmers are aware of the existence of improved varieties of common bean seed and perceive that with
the use of this seed, productivity can improve hence willing to pay for the good. The study is
95% confident that mean price farmers are willing to pay for improved common bean seed is
between MK 527.78 and MK 591.92. Three major existing informal dissemination channels
of bean seed were discovered in the study areas.
Therefore there is a need for government to work in collaboration with NGOs towards
ensuring a formal supply system of bean seed characterised by vertically organised production
and dissemination of tested and approved seed varieties, and using strict quality control rules,
so that farmers can be assured of accessing improved seed varieties. This will increase the
nation’s food security.
