Kenyan consumers' and farmers' preferences regarding sustainable food value chains: a Discrete Choice Experiment.

Over the last decades, Africa's agricultural sector has experienced significant changes. Some of these changes, amongst others, relate to the changing environment, the growing population, and evolving diets. Several international organizations state that the development of sustainable and resilient value chains is needed to reduce food insecurity, poverty, and environmental footprints. Moreover, they argue that a systemic approach is needed to connect production and consumption. In other words, understanding sustainable food value chains (SFVCs) through supply and demand. Still, studies about consumers' and farmers' preferences regarding SFVCs in Africa are practically non-existent and this research proposal can help fill this research gap. This research aims to understand the potential acceptance and interest of African consumers and farmers in sustainable food value chains. This will be done by means of a Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) with 300 consumers and 200 farmers in Nairobi and Siaya county. More specifically this research aims to (1) disclose the perception and motivation of African farmers to (dis-)adopt climate robust practices; (2) and gain insight in the willingness of African consumers to buy sustainable food products. Moreover, besides the relevance of the research topic, this research will provide valuable methodological insights into how the Q-Methodology (Q) can be used in parallel with DCE. By applying Q in the past, we gained a better understanding of the perceptions towards SFVC by both Kenyan farmers and consumers. The Q results will be used either for defining the attributes of a DCE, or to validate the results of the DCE. This combination of both methods has rarely been used but shows great potential to combine qualitative with quantitative research

Keywords:DISCRETE CHOICE EXPERIMENT, SUSTAINABILITY, FOOD CHAIN, AGRICULTURE

Disciplines:Sustainable agriculture, Agricultural and natural resource economics, environmental and ecological economics