Abstract
The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) provides a monthly SDI service to 364 users in over 50 countries The service costs about US $25,000 per year and is funded partly by a special project and partly by core funds. Cuts in core and project funds have forced the Institute to consider charging for the SDI service in order to offset as much as possible the cost of providing the service without hampering its accessibility to users who cannot pay This paper identifies potential user segments who can be charged for the service using criteria such as capacity to pay, purpose of seeking information (profit-making is public good), and availability of information services in the institution or country of users. It discusses different pricing objectives and pricing techniques, and describes the formula used to arrive at a price for users from the private sector.
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