O.A. Obasoro , O.O. Obisesan , O.J. Onabajo

Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Author    Correspondence author
Bioscience Methods, 2016, Vol. 7, No. 2   doi: 10.5376/bm.2016.07.0002
Received: 28 Mar., 2016    Accepted: 16 Jul., 2016    Published: 30 Nov., 2016

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Obasoro A.S., Obisesan O.O., and Onabajo O.J., 2016, Rice farmers’ willingness to pay for agricultural insurance in Ogun state, Nigeria, Bioscience Methods, 7(2): 1-11

This study was carried in order to determine the willingness of rice farmers to take agricultural insurance in Ogun State. Total of 180 questionnaires were administered and data were collected on socioeconomic characteristics, major risks encountered by farmers, extent of awareness about agricultural insurance, premium farmers are willing to pay for insurance etc. Descriptive statistics, contingent-valuation and logistic regression were used for data analysis. Descriptive analysis showed that (65.6%) of the respondents were male, (43.9%) had agriculture as their major occupation, (58.9%) were 31-50 years, average household size was 6, farm size was ±1.25 hectares and mean monthly income was ₦23,461. Major risks encountered by rice farmers in the area are pest and diseases, drought, inadequate technology and poor storage system. 28.3% of the respondents were aware of agricultural insurance but did not subscribe for it. Estimates from the logistic regression revealed that household size, education, primary-occupation, farm size, source of information and membership of association played significant role on farmers’ awareness of agricultural insurance (significant at 1, 5 and 10 percent). The mean amount farmers were willing to pay as premium was ₦2,412.05 while farmers involved in the cultivation of improved rice varieties (ITA 150/WAB 189) were willing to pay more premium (₦5,753.92) compared to their counterparts (₦1,590.69) involved in the local varieties (Ofada/OS6). Gender, primary-occupation, farm size, income, premium charged and awareness level significantly influences willingness to take agricultural insurance by these rice farmers.

Willingness to pay; contingent-valuation; logistic regression; agricultural insurance; Ogun state