Assessing Farmers’ Behavioural Metrics, Participatory Influences, and Demand-side Barriers of Agricultural Insurance in South-West, Nigeria

Abstract

Agriculture is critical to economic prosperity of Nigeria and to a large extent, the economic wellbeing of Africa. However, this paper evaluated the judgments of farmers regarding agricultural insurance on the basis of their behavioural metrics, participatory influences, and demand-side barriers in Nigeria. The study employed descriptive cross- sectional design coupled with survey approach. A structured questionnaire was developed in Google form and posted electronically via the WhatsApp created to which registered farmers were added. This study, therefore, captured the thoughts, experiences, and observations of the selected farmers in Nigeria. This study found that farmers’ desires and patronage toward agricultural insurance policies had been positively initiated in terms of awareness, knowledge, and preference for agricultural insurance, while negatively affected in terms of their experiences. Thus, while the farmers’ genders are unimportant, farmers’ family sizes, and farmers’ ages were both slightly important, farmers’ formal education and experiences were considered moderate influencers, access to credit and insurance experts showed the highest probability of importance to farmers’ participations in agricultural insurance. Conclusively, the unavailability of government subsidies to farmers affirmed strongly that 68.8 percent stand out as the greatest barrier to demand for agricultural insurance. This study suggests that tailored-made agricultural insurance policies which embed access to low interest credit facilities from agricultural bank be designed to boost farmers’ economics of scale in Nigeria.