Farmer Willingness to Pay for Quality Bean Seeds: Data, Tools and Methods Used in the Field Experiments Conducted in Nicaragua, 2017

A simple way to increase smallholder farmers' bean yields is to improve the quality of the seed used. Improved seed quality should lead to higher germination rates, better pest resistance and an overall healthier and more vigorous plants and thus higher yields. The use of higher quality seed in a smallholder context can be hampered by several factors including availability, trust in the source, and the price premium required to purchase. This dataset is based on a study that focused on the later and investigated farmers' willingness-to-pay (WTP) for higher quality seed. Double-blind farmer-run field trials in 10 villages in Nicaragua were conducted using three different qualities of bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) seed of the same variety - Certified, Quality Declared (QDS), and recycled. Village farmers participated in two field days (at flowering and just before harvest) to observe plot differences and participated in ranking activities. To elicit the WTP for the different seed qualities,10-40 farmers in each village participated in both an auction (Becker-DeGroot-Marschak [BDM] mechanism) and a real choice experiment (RCE) during the last field day. Both the BDM mechanism and RCE were incentivized in that participants were told that one will be chosen randomly and the outcome enforced (i.e., the farmer would have to buy seed at the chosen price). During the farm survey conducted between the two field days, a hypothetical choice experiment (HCE) was also conducted with a sub-set of farmers by showing the actual samples of three seed products (certified, QDS and recycled). This set includes data from the HCE, BDM and RCE experiments, plot ratings by farmers during the two field days, and farmer surveys. It also includes the HCE and RCE experiment design, and all the tools and scripts used during the auction experiments and field evaluations.