Assessment of Rural Farmers’ Attitudes toward Agricultural Insurance Scheme as a Risk Management Strategy in Kogi State, North central Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed rural farmers’ attitudes towards agricultural insurance scheme in Kogi State, North central Nigeria. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 240 rural farmers from the four agricultural zones in the state. Data obtained through structured questionnaire were analysed using descriptive statistics and mean score from a four point Likert type of scale. The findings showed that 70.8% of the rural farmers were male in their productive age of 44 years while average household size of 7 members operated on a mean farm size of 1.4 hectares. Rural farmers in the state had negative attitude towards agricultural insurance scheme. They perceived that insurers exploited them with high premium (M=3.3) and that government was not giving them enough support (M=3.3). The respondents were also constrained in their access to insurance experts due to long distance (M=3.3). The study recommends that government should subsidize agricultural insurance to enable serious farmers afford the premium. Also, there is need to create awareness on technical issues on agricultural insurance programme implementation. This can be realized through well focused public enlightenment programmes, including extension services delivery.

Keywords: Perception, NAIS, Risk, Premium