Investigating the interest of farmers and insurance companies in farm insurance: the case of cocoa farmers in Sekyere West municipal of Ghana

Abstract

The study examined interest of farmers and insurance companies in farm insurance. The sample consisted of 110 respondents; 100 farmers and 10 insurance companies. The Probit model was used to analyse the effect of factors affecting the willingness of cocoa farmers to accept farm insurance. All of the respondents had ever heard of one or more types of insurance whiles 32% had knowledge of farm insurance. About 87% indicated their interest in farm insurance. The t-statistic results showed that other occupation of farmer (-0.200, p=0.097), farm size (1.96, p = 0.050) and owner of land for farming (-0.41, p = 0.011) significantly affected willingness to accept farm insurance policies. For a realistic farm insurance policy, it is recommended that land availability for farmers must be largely considered.