dc.description.abstract |
In Ethiopia, small-scale farmers’ are exposed to a number of agricultural risks and
uncertainties due to their livelihood’s vulnerability to variation in weather conditions. To
manage these risks, introducing crop insurance scheme could be considered as an essential
alternative management tool. As a result, this study was aimed to examine the willingness of
smallholder farmers’ to use crop insurance in Meket woreda. A multi-stage random sampling
technique was employed to draw sample respondents. To elicit farmers’ willingness to pay for
weather index-based crop insurance, double bounded dichotomous choice followed by openended
question format of the contingent valuation method was used. The study employed
descriptive and econometric techniques to analyze primary data obtained from 261 sampled farmers in
the study area. Out of the sampled farmers, 161 (61.69%) were willing to participate in the proposed
weather index-based crop insurance. To analyze factors affecting farmers’ willingness to
participate and maximum amount of money they were willing to pay, Heckman two-stage model
was used. Results of the first stage’s Heckman model revealed that marital status, total cultivated
land size, total farm income, frequency of extension contact, membership in social organizations,
access to credit and perception of weather-related risks had significant positive influence on
farmers’ willingness to participate in the proposed crop insurance scheme, while sex, age,
distance of residence from the nearest market, household size and off-farm income had
significant negative influence on it. Results of the second stage’s Heckman model showed that
total farm income, off-farm income, frequency of extension contact and membership in social
organizations had significantly and positively affected farmers’ maximum willingness to pay,
while age, marital status and credit access had influenced it significantly and negatively. This
study also used a seemingly unrelated bivariate probit model to estimate the mean values that
farmers’ were willing to pay. Accordingly, using closed- and open-ended question formats, on
average, farmers were willing to pay at 141.92 and 134.97 Birr per Timad per year, respectively.
Finally, the study suggested government and other concerned bodies need to give attention and
introduce weather-based crop insurance for reducing farmers’ vulnerability to crop production
risks which are related to weather and have to consider the variables that significantly affect
willingness to pay.
Keywords: weather-based crop insurance, contingent valuation, Heckman two-stage model |
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