IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jageco/v72y2021i1p293-320.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Demand for Crop Insurance in Developing Countries: New Evidence from India

Author

Listed:
  • Ranjan Kumar Ghosh
  • Shweta Gupta
  • Vartika Singh
  • Patrick S. Ward

Abstract

Determining farmers’ real demand for crop insurance is difficult, especially in developing countries, where there is a lack of formal financial sector integration and a high reliance on informal risk mitigation options. We provide some new estimates of farmers’ willingness‐to‐pay for insurance in the context of a large‐scale subsidised programme in India. We conducted a discrete choice experiment with agricultural households across four states in India, enabling us to estimate preferences for specific insurance policy attributes such as coverage period, method of loss assessment, timing of indemnity payments and the cost of insurance. Our results suggest that farmers do value crop insurance under certain conditions and some are willing to pay a premium for such coverage in excess of the subsidised rates they are currently required to pay under this programme. In particular, farmers value the assurances that they will receive timely payouts when they incur losses, and may not have a strong preference for the method with which losses are assessed. On the other hand, farmers are quite sensitive to coverage periods. Our baseline assessment shows that when optimised to farmer requirements, there can be a sizeable demand for crop insurance by developing country farmers.

Suggested Citation

  • Ranjan Kumar Ghosh & Shweta Gupta & Vartika Singh & Patrick S. Ward, 2021. "Demand for Crop Insurance in Developing Countries: New Evidence from India," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(1), pages 293-320, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jageco:v:72:y:2021:i:1:p:293-320
    DOI: 10.1111/1477-9552.12403
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1477-9552.12403
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1477-9552.12403?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bardsley, Peter & Abey, Arun & Davenport, Scott V., 1984. "The Economics Of Insuring Crops Against Drought," Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 28(1), pages 1-14, April.
    2. Vincent H. Smith & Joseph W. Glauber, 2012. "Agricultural Insurance in Developed Countries: Where Have We Been and Where Are We Going?," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 34(3), pages 363-390.
    3. Elabed, Ghada & Carter, Michael R., 2015. "Compound-risk aversion, ambiguity and the willingness to pay for microinsurance," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 150-166.
    4. Hongli Feng & Xiaodong Du & David A. Hennessy, 2020. "Depressed demand for crop insurance contracts, and a rationale based on third generation Prospect Theory," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 51(1), pages 59-73, January.
    5. Jerrod M Penn & Wuyang Hu, 2018. "Understanding Hypothetical Bias: An Enhanced Meta-Analysis," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 100(4), pages 1186-1206.
    6. Feder, Gershon & Just, Richard E & Zilberman, David, 1985. "Adoption of Agricultural Innovations in Developing Countries: A Survey," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(2), pages 255-298, January.
    7. Jensen, Nathaniel D. & Mude, Andrew G. & Barrett, Christopher B., 2018. "How basis risk and spatiotemporal adverse selection influence demand for index insurance: Evidence from northern Kenya," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 172-198.
    8. Bruce A. Babcock, 2015. "Using Cumulative Prospect Theory to Explain Anomalous Crop Insurance Coverage Choice," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 97(5), pages 1371-1384.
    9. Jisang Yu & Daniel A. Sumner, 2018. "Effects of subsidized crop insurance on crop choices," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 49(4), pages 533-545, July.
    10. Scarpa, R. & Thiene, M. & Train, K., 2008. "Appendix to Utility in WTP space: a tool to address confounding random scale effects in destination choice to the Alps," American Journal of Agricultural Economics APPENDICES, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 90(4), pages 1-9, January.
    11. Takeshi Sakurai & Thomas Reardon, 1997. "Potential Demand for Drought Insurance in Burkina Faso and Its Determinants," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 79(4), pages 1193-1207.
    12. Vincent H. Smith & Myles Watts, 2010. "The New Standing Disaster Program: A SURE Invitation to Moral Hazard Behavior," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 32(1), pages 154-169.
    13. Hess, Stephane & Hensher, David A., 2010. "Using conditioning on observed choices to retrieve individual-specific attribute processing strategies," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 44(6), pages 781-790, July.
    14. Zaura Fadhliani & Jeff Luckstead & Eric J. Wailes, 2019. "The impacts of multiperil crop insurance on Indonesian rice farmers and production," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 50(1), pages 15-26, January.
    15. Vandeveer, Monte L., 2001. "Demand for area crop insurance among litchi producers in northern Vietnam," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 173-184, November.
    16. Martin Kanz, 2016. "What Does Debt Relief Do for Development? Evidence from India's Bailout for Rural Households," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(4), pages 66-99, October.
    17. Bruce J. Sherrick & Gary D. Schnitkey & Paul N. Ellinger & Peter J. Barry & Brian Wansink, 2003. "Farmers' Preferences for Crop Insurance Attributes," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 25(2), pages 415-429.
    18. David A. Hensher & William H. Greene, 2011. "Valuation of Travel Time Savings in WTP and Preference Space in the Presence of Taste and Scale Heterogeneity," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 45(3), pages 505-525, September.
    19. Skees, Jerry R., 2000. "A role for capital markets in natural disasters: a piece of the food security puzzle," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 365-378, June.
    20. Denzil G. Fiebig & Michael P. Keane & Jordan Louviere & Nada Wasi, 2010. "The Generalized Multinomial Logit Model: Accounting for Scale and Coefficient Heterogeneity," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 393-421, 05-06.
    21. Jisang Yu & Aaron Smith & Daniel A Sumner, 2018. "Effects of Crop Insurance Premium Subsidies on Crop Acreage," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 100(1), pages 91-114.
    22. Barry J. Barnett & Olivier Mahul, 2007. "Weather Index Insurance for Agriculture and Rural Areas in Lower-Income Countries," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 89(5), pages 1241-1247.
    23. Sarrias, Mauricio & Daziano, Ricardo, 2017. "Multinomial Logit Models with Continuous and Discrete Individual Heterogeneity in R: The gmnl Package," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 79(i02).
    24. Brian Wansink, 2003. "Farmers' Preferences for Crop Insurance Attributes," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 25(2), pages 415-429.
    25. Danny Campbell, 2007. "Willingness to Pay for Rural Landscape Improvements: Combining Mixed Logit and Random‐Effects Models," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(3), pages 467-483, September.
    26. Fahad, Shah & Jing, Wang, 2018. "Evaluation of Pakistani farmers’ willingness to pay for crop insurance using contingent valuation method: The case of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 570-577.
    27. Mario J. Miranda & Katie Farrin, 2012. "Index Insurance for Developing Countries," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 34(3), pages 391-427.
    28. Tao Ye & Ming Wang & Wuyang Hu & Yangbin Liu & Peijun Shi, 2017. "High liabilities or heavy subsidies," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 9(4), pages 588-606, November.
    29. Kelvin J. Lancaster, 1966. "A New Approach to Consumer Theory," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 74(2), pages 132-132.
    30. Kazianga, Harounan & Udry, Christopher, 2006. "Consumption smoothing? Livestock, insurance and drought in rural Burkina Faso," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 413-446, April.
    31. Babcock, Bruce, 2015. "Using Prospect Theory to Explain Anomalous Crop Insurance Coverage Choice," 2015 Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA) Annual Meeting, January 3-5, 2015, Boston, Massachusetts 189682, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    32. Barry K. Goodwin, 2001. "Problems with Market Insurance in Agriculture," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 83(3), pages 643-649.
    33. Vincent H. Smith & Myles Watts, 2010. "The New Standing Disaster Program: A SURE Invitation to Moral Hazard Behavior," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 32(1), pages 154-169.
    34. Liesivaara, Petri & Myyrä, Sami, 2017. "The demand for public–private crop insurance and government disaster relief," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 19-34.
    35. Huo, Ran & Colson, Gregory J., 2018. "Insurance Demand over Varying Coverage Levels: Experimental Evidence From China," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274476, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    36. H. Holly Wang & Lu Liu & David L. Ortega & Yu Jiang & Qiujie Zheng, 2020. "Are smallholder farmers willing to pay for different types of crop insurance? An application of labelled choice experiments to Chinese corn growers," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 45(1), pages 86-110, January.
    37. Yao, Richard T. & Scarpa, Riccardo & Turner, James A. & Barnard, Tim D. & Rose, John M. & Palma, João H.N. & Harrison, Duncan R., 2014. "Valuing biodiversity enhancement in New Zealand's planted forests: Socioeconomic and spatial determinants of willingness-to-pay," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 90-101.
    38. Vincent H. Smith & Joseph W. Glauber, 2012. "Agricultural Insurance in Developed Countries: Where Have We Been and Where Are We Going?," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 34(3), pages 363-390.
    39. Mario J. Miranda, 1991. "Area-Yield Crop Insurance Reconsidered," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 73(2), pages 233-242.
    40. Riccardo Scarpa & Mara Thiene & Kenneth Train, 2008. "Utility in Willingness to Pay Space: A Tool to Address Confounding Random Scale Effects in Destination Choice to the Alps," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 90(4), pages 994-1010.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Filiptseva, Anna & Filler, Günther & Odening, Martin, 2023. "Compensation schemes for plant quarantine pest costs: A case study for Germany," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1381-1395.
    2. Allen Blackman & Sahan T. M. Dissanayake & Adan L. Martinez-Cruz & Leonardo Corral & Maja Schling, 2024. "The Benefits of Titling Indigenous Communities in the Peruvian Amazon: A Stated Preference Approach," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 100(2), pages 333-352.
    3. Nordmeyer, Eike Florenz, 2023. "German farmers' perceived usefulness of satellite-based index insurance - Insights from a transtheoretical model," 97th Annual Conference, March 27-29, 2023, Warwick University, Coventry, UK 334557, Agricultural Economics Society - AES.
    4. Fabio G., Santeramo & Ilaria, Russo & Emilia, Lamonaca, 2022. "Italian subsidised crop insurance: what the role of policy changes," MPRA Paper 115299, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Pechan, Paul M. & Bohle, Heidi & Obster, Fabian, 2023. "Reducing vulnerability of fruit orchards to climate change," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    6. Nordmeyer, Eike Florenz & Danne, Michael & Musshoff, Oliver, 2023. "Can satellite-retrieved data increase farmers' willingness to insure against drought? – Insights from Germany," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    7. Goyal, Yugank & Choudhury, Pranab Ranjan & Ghosh, Ranjan Kumar, 2022. "Informal land leasing in rural India persists because it is credible," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    8. Richard KOENIG & Marielle BRUNETTE, 2023. "Subjective barriers and determinants to crop insurance adoption," Working Papers of BETA 2023-25, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    9. Ella Kirchner & Oliver Musshoff, 2024. "Digital opportunities for the distribution of index‐based microinsurance: Evidence from a discrete choice experiment in Mali," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(2), pages 794-815, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Quentin Stoeffler & Michael Carter & Catherine Guirkinger & Wouter Gelade, 2022. "The Spillover Impact of Index Insurance on Agricultural Investment by Cotton Farmers in Burkina Faso," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 36(1), pages 114-140.
    2. Matthieu Stigler & David Lobell, 2020. "On the benefits of index insurance in US agriculture: a large-scale analysis using satellite data," Papers 2011.12544, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2021.
    3. H. Holly Wang & Lu Liu & David L. Ortega & Yu Jiang & Qiujie Zheng, 2020. "Are smallholder farmers willing to pay for different types of crop insurance? An application of labelled choice experiments to Chinese corn growers," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 45(1), pages 86-110, January.
    4. Stigler, Matthieu M. & Lobell, David, 2020. "Suitability of index insurance: new insights from satellite data," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304663, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Fabio G., Santeramo & Ilaria, Russo & Emilia, Lamonaca, 2022. "Italian subsidised crop insurance: what the role of policy changes," MPRA Paper 115299, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Sarah Janzen & Nicholas Magnan & Conner Mullally & Soye Shin & I. Bailey Palmer & Judith Oduol & Karl Hughes, 2021. "Can Experiential Games and Improved Risk Coverage Raise Demand for Index Insurance? Evidence from Kenya," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 103(1), pages 338-361, January.
    7. Nguyen, Manh-Hung & Nguyen, Thi Lan Anh & Nguyen, Tuan & Reynaud, Arnaud & Simioni, Michel & Hoang, Viet-Ngu, 2021. "Economic analysis of choices among differing measures to manage coastal erosion in Hoi An (a UNESCO World Heritage Site)," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 529-543.
    8. Mbonane, Nobuhle Duduzile, 2018. "An analysis of farmers’ preferences for crop insurance: a case of maize farmers in Swaziland," Research Theses 334771, Collaborative Masters Program in Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    9. Bucheli, Janic & Dalhaus, Tobias & Finger, Robert, 2022. "Temperature effects on crop yields in heat index insurance," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    10. Glauber, Joseph W., 2017. "Agricultural insurance and the WTO:," IFPRI book chapters, in: Bouët, Antoine & Laborde Debucquet, David (ed.), Agriculture, development, and the global trading system: 2000– 2015, chapter 10, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    11. Stoeffler, Quentin & Opuz, Gülce, 2022. "Price, information and product quality: Explaining index insurance demand in Burkina Faso," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    12. Doherty, Edel & Campbell, Danny & Hynes, Stephen, 2012. "Exploring cost heterogeneity in recreational demand," Working Papers 148832, National University of Ireland, Galway, Socio-Economic Marine Research Unit.
    13. Mauro Vigani & Jonas Kathage, 2019. "To Risk or Not to Risk? Risk Management and Farm Productivity," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 101(5), pages 1432-1454, October.
    14. Xiaodong Du & Hongli Feng & David A. Hennessy, 2017. "Rationality of Choices in Subsidized Crop Insurance Markets," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 99(3), pages 732-756.
    15. Hongli Feng & Xiaodong Du & David A. Hennessy, 2020. "Depressed demand for crop insurance contracts, and a rationale based on third generation Prospect Theory," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 51(1), pages 59-73, January.
    16. Lehmann, Nico & Sloot, Daniel & Ardone, Armin & Fichtner, Wolf, 2021. "The limited potential of regional electricity marketing – Results from two discrete choice experiments in Germany," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    17. Vroege, Willemijn & Dalhaus, Tobias & Finger, Robert, 2019. "Index insurances for grasslands – A review for Europe and North-America," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 101-111.
    18. Boyd, Chris M. & Bellemare, Marc F., 2022. "Why not insure prices? Experimental evidence from Peru," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 580-631.
    19. Vigani, Mauro & Khafagy, Amr & Berry, Robert, 2024. "Public spending for agricultural risk management: Land use, regional welfare and intra-subsidy substitution," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    20. Barnett, Barry J. & Barrett, Christopher B. & Skees, Jerry R., 2008. "Poverty Traps and Index-Based Risk Transfer Products," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 1766-1785, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jageco:v:72:y:2021:i:1:p:293-320. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0021-857X .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.