Does bundling credit with index insurance boost agricultural technology adoption? Evidence from Ghana

Abstract

The adoption of advanced agricultural technologies in Sub‐Saharan Africa remains disappointingly low, particularly among the millions of poor smallholders who account for most of the agricultural production. We conducted a randomized control trial in Ghana to assess the impact of easing drought‐risk constraints in the agricultural credit market, by bundling joint liability agricultural loans with index insurance, on smallholder farmers’ agricultural technology adoption decisions. In the micro‐insurance treatment, any index insurance payouts go directly to farmers, while in the meso‐insurance treatment, payouts are issued to banks to be used to expunge farmers’ debts. We find evidence that bundling joint liability lending with micro‐insurance increases adoption of fertilizer.