Factors Influencing Farmers' Choice of Agricultural Insurance on Arable Crop Production in Kwara State, Nigeria

Despite the long history of agricultural insurance in Nigeria, crop insurance is yet to be generally embraced or accepted by farmers. This study investigates the factors that influence the choice of agricultural insurance especially by arable crop farmers. A multistage sampling procedure was employed to select a sample size of 154 farmers in the study area. Descriptive statistics was used to examine the array of agricultural crop insurance taken by farmers; their socio-economic characteristics and their risk management options. A logit regression model was used to examine the factors influencing farmers’ choice of crop insurance. The findings reveal that most of the farmers (35.3%) were between 45 and 54 years old with at least primary education. Most of them small scale farmers (1-5 hectares) and are highly experienced. Also, most of the farmers (64.9%) were influenced by the financial institutions (Bank of Agriculture (BoA)) compelling them to acquire insurance policy as a precondition for obtaining loans or as a practical response to some risks which they were faced with in the immediate preceding season. Drought, diseases and pest insurance policy were seen to be more subscribed for by arable crop farmers in the study area, while most of them had high risk management options apart from the insurance policy. The logit regression results show that educational level, farm size and accessibility to credit facility were very crucial to the decision by farmers to acquire insurance policy. Other factors include: yield in previous year, and type of damages experienced in the preceding cropping season were found to be significant variables.