Are smallholders willing to pay for animal disease control? Empirical evidence from a study of mass vaccination for Avian Influenza in Indonesia

A household survey to elicit information about decision-making on adoption of HPAI control strategies was implemented as a complement to the cost-effectiveness analysis of the mass vaccination activities that were evaluated as part of the operational research to identify more effective HPAI control strategies for poultry in Indonesia. The empirical estimates of adoption and willingness to pay for vaccination can provide guidance in designing appropriate mechanisms to enhance the acceptability and uptake of a massvaccination program for the backyard poultry sector. Specifically, our results suggest that the cost of the mass vaccination was much higher than what its target beneficiaries – the backyard poultry sector – are willing to pay. While there are economic incentives arising from market opportunities presented by poultry sales, particularly in native chicken markets, these appeared to be reduced by scale effects, i.e., smaller flock sizes inhibit backyard poultry raisers from adopting and willingly pay for vaccination, as compared to households that are more commercially oriented and have larger flock sizes. Also, given that household adoption decisions are influenced to a great extent by their subjective perception of uncertainty – in this case, the risk of disease outbreak from AI virus infection – more exposure by households to appropriate information that will reduce their subjective uncertainty would go a long way towards eliciting appropriate behavior.