Farmers as Consumers of Agricultural Education Services: Willingness to Pay and Spend Time

Abstract

Abstract This study assessed farmers' willingness to pay for and spend time attending an Agricultural Educational Program (AEP). Primary data on the demographic and socio-economic variables of farmers were collected from 355 farmers selected randomly from Northern Greece. Descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis methods were used in order to meet the objectives of the study. Results showed that about half of the farmers are not willing to spend money and time for more than two days for participation in AEPs, while the Lower Bound Mean for money and time is €74.54 and 5.8 days, respectively. Willingness to pay and to spend time is influenced mainly by the expected benefits from attending an AEP and less by the elements regarding the educational process itself. Moreover, the farmers of the sample were separated into three clusters; ‘Eclectics’ who are middle-spenders and tend to correlate willingness to pay with AEP's internal characteristics; ‘Enthusiasts’, the cluster of heavy-spenders; ‘Reviewers’ that are characterized by negative attitude towards agricultural education. From a practical point of view, the study's findings could be used by policy makers, extension workers and institutions providing agricultural education to time planning and to promoting alternative ways of an AEP. This study investigates farmers' willingness to spend time, which is a barrier for farmers to the desire of attending an AEP. Moreover, the relationship between the willingness to spend time and money and the agricultural education's qualitative characteristics is investigated.