A training
course on experimental auctions, financed by CIDA, was organized by AfricaRice
and the National Crops Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI) Cereals Program of
the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) in Kampala, Uganda from
4 to 9 December. One facilitator and eight trainees from eight organizations
were trained. The trainees came from organizations in Cameroon, Gambia, Ghana,
Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Uganda. The training was unique in
that it combined theoretical lectures with practical sessions — a series of real
experimental auctions was conducted, which participants organized. The auctions
aimed at eliciting urban Ugandan consumers’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for
alternative NERICA rice varieties and the determinants of WTP. This was the
first training of its kind on experimental auctions in Africa and was a big
success.
