The study employed choice experiment methods and latent class model to assess farmers’ preferences for seed yam certification system and their willingness to pay for certified seed yam in Kintamop, East Gonja and Afram Plains Districts in Ghana. A total of 9120 choice experiments were elicited from 380 yam farmers. The study identified three classes/ market segments of farmers regarding preferences for Pona seed yam. The results show that farmers have more utility towards fully certified seed yam and are willing to pay ¢719.6 for a bunch of fully certified seed yam. The findings indicate that the likelihood that a randomly chosen farmer would prefer fully certified seed yam was 88.9%. Farmers have high utility towards medium sized seed yam for Pona variety and were willing to pay ¢12.5 for this attribute. The results demonstrate market potential for commercial seed yam certification system in Ghana.
Keywords: Choice Experiment, Market Segmentation, Seed Yam, Willingness to pay
