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Abstract
This paper analyzes smallholder farmers' willingness to pay (WTP) for the purchase
of scale-appropriate farm mechanization in the hill ecologies of Nepal using the case
of mini-tiller technology: a small, 5–7 horsepower two-wheel tractor primarily used
for agricultural land preparation. Using primary survey data from 628 randomly-selected
households, we find that farm size, local wage rates, out-migration, access to credit
services, and associations with agricultural cooperatives positively influence the
WTP for mini-tillers while the number of draft animals owned negatively influence
the WTP for mini-tillers. On average, farmers were willing to pay 31% less than the
actual price of a mini-tiller. Results also exhibited a heterogeneous demand in which
the lowest quartile farm size households, typically the poorest farm households, were
willing to pay 26% less for the mini-tiller than the top quartile of farms. In the
context of labor scarcity and rising rural wages, agricultural policy on farm mechanization
in Nepal should aim to prioritize small farms through robust service provision models
in order to increase the level of farm mechanization in the country.