Households' willingness to pay for donkey milk : evidence from Mahikeng Local Municipality

Abstract

Donkey milk has a host of qualities which make it a superior alternative to cow milk. Donkey milk contains low fat and a very high level of Lysozyme content. Lysozyme act as a defence against infections such as mastitis and also eliminate the possibility of new infections. The alternative milk from donkeys does not only have good nutritional value, but also has medicinal attributes such as treating metabolic, digestive and liver problems. The main aim of this study was to assess consumers' willingness to pay for donkey milk with a view to initiate proper intermediations, as well as informing donkey milk projects and policies. To achieve this, and with reference to the North West Province, the specific objectives were to: Identify dominant indicators underlying consumers' perceptions on donkey milk consumption; Determine socio-economic factors affecting consumers' perceptions on donkey milk consumption; Assess consumers' willingness to pay for donkey milk; and Determine socio-economic factors influencing consumers' willingness to pay for donkey milk. A stratified sampling technique was used to obtain a representative sample. Using probability proportional to size, a total number of 348 households were drawn from 31 wards and a systematic method was then used to determine the number of households to interview from each ward. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied to identify dominant indicators underlying consumers' perception. The first principal component (PC) was then used as a dependent variable in the Logit model used to identify socio-economic factors affecting consumers' perceptions on donkey milk. The Logit results revealed that age of household head, proportion of adult members with at least secondary education, number of children under 18 years, prior knowledge on donkey milk and income from grants significantly influenced households' perceptions on donkey milk consumption. It was also found that households in Mahikeng Local Municipality, on average, were willing to pay R4 more per litre of donkey milk over the price of cow milk (R13). This finding is consistent with expectations given that donkey milk has some similarities with human milk and offers more nutritional and cosmetic values than cow milk. It could be inferred, therefore, that there is a potential market for donkey milk that can be developed in Mafikeng. However, further developments will depend on whether a conducive policy framework to attract meaningful private sector participation exists.