Factors explaining household payment for potable water in South Africa

The critical role of clean water for sustaining life is enshrine in the Sustainable Development Goals 2030. However, water scarcity currently affects more than 40% of people globally and by 2030, demand for water is expected to grow by 50%. Maintaining current water usage in South Africa is anticipated to result in 17% water deficit in 2030 and this is expected to be exacerbated by climate change. Hence, this study seeks to explain factors influencing household payment for potable water utilizing the recently released South African Living Conditions Survey 2014/2015. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and probit model. Results reveals that 83% of the respondents received water from municipal water supplier while only 35% pay for water usage. The empirical result shows that socioeconomic characteristics of household head like gender, age and income positively influence payment for water while municipal water interruption for more than two days, black South Africans, keeping of livestock and involvement in agriculture negatively influence payment for water. Based on these findings, we recommend that South African water policy should address income inequality, encourage gender sensitive water management education and create awareness for prompt water tariff payment to promote sustainable water supply in South Africa

Food Poverty and Livelihoods Issues in Rural Nigeria

The Nigerian food insecurity situation is still described as appalling despite a number of efforts geared towards addressing the problem. Fundamental to the phenomenon of poverty and food insecurity in Nigeria at national, community and household levels are issues of livelihood and agro-ecological diversity. This study investigates the linkage between food poverty and livelihood activities, capabilities and assets; and socio-economic factors; and agro-ecological variations at the household level in rural Nigeria. The study makes use of nation-wide cross-sectional data of the Nigerian Living Standard Survey (NLSS). Results show that, on the whole, farming is the predominant livelihood activity. The distribution of livelihood activities clearly shows that the primary sector of livelihood activities (farming and mining - extraction) is predominantly occupied by men, while the secondary sector (manufacturing - processing) and the tertiary sector (services - trade) are quite favoured by women. Female-headed households are more food secure than their male counterpart. The main determinants of rural household food poverty in Nigeria are: livelihood activities-farming; livelihood capabilities- credit access; socio-economic factors - household size, years of formal education, marital status and age of household head; and agro-ecological variation. The study, therefore, suggests that food security policy that is agro-ecologically specific, with gender-oriented development of primary livelihood (farming) activities should be given paramount attention in the rural sector of Nigeria

Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Cassava Flour Inclusion in Bread, a Case Study of Lagos State, Nigeria

The study was conducted to address the issue of consumers’ willingness to pay for inclusion of cassava flour in bread in Lagos State. The data were collected randomly from a sample of 300 respondents in the state through the use of a well structured questionnaire. The contingent valuation method was adopted to estimate both the mean willingness to pay of consumers and the factors that affect their willingness to pay and these were analyzed using the bivariate probit model. The most significant model was the 10percent cassava flour inclusion as it has the highest number of significant variables (eight) followed by 20percent cassava flour inclusion with seven significant variables and 30 and 40percent cassava flour inclusion with six significant variables each. The factors that influenced consumers’ willingness to pay for CCW bread were the respondent’s age, gender, respondents’ awareness, married respondents, respondents with head position,and bread share which is the proportion of respondents income spent on bread to total income. The mean willingness to pay for bread with an inclusion of cassava flour at 10, 20, 30, and 40percent cassava flour inclusion were ?172.70, ?165.00, ?154.07, and ?142.78 respectively for initial bid while the mean willingness-to-pay at 10, 20, 30, and 40percent cassava flour inclusion were ?180.20, ?150.41, ?143.35, and ?127.36 respectively for subsequent bid. Arising from the result of this study, birth control policies were recommended among respondents in the study area

Consumers’Willingness to Pay for Safety Attributes of Bread in Lagos Metropolis, Nigeria

This study examined consumer’s willingness to pay for food safety attributes in bread in Lagos metropolis. It empirically analyzed the factors driving willingness to pay for improved bread and the effect of attributes on willingness to pay and mean willingness to pay for improved bread. The data for the study using a well-structured questionnaire containing Choice Experiment (CE) questions for eliciting willingness to pay was collected from 150 respondents using a two-stage random sampling technique. Data analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics and the Conditional logit regression model. Empirical results reveal that price and the non-monetary attributes namely, bromate label, certification, nutritional label, flavor and texture were all significant in explaining consumer’s choices. The study suggests that government and producers should promote strict adherence to bromate free and nutritional labels, since the result shows that consumers’ willingness to pay is higher than the status quo with respect to this attributes