Determinants of Using Crop Insurance among Small-Scale Sugarcane Farmers in Eswatini

Ajay S. Singh¹ , Douglas Kibirige² , Makhosazane J. Dlamini³

Section:Research Paper, Product Type: Journal-Paper
Vol.8 , Issue.6 , pp.30-37, Jun-2022

Online published on Jun 30, 2022

Copyright © Ajay S. Singh, Douglas Kibirige, Makhosazane J. Dlamini . This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
 

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Abstract :
Agriculture is a primary source of income generation and also provides a means of other investment opportunities in Eswatini. In Eswatini, farmers are still facing a magnitude of production risks including climate change and other natural hazards. While suggested that risk coping mechanism like crop insurance has the potential to unlock the potential to enhance farm productivity, uptake of crop insurance is very low among smallholder sugarcane farmers .This research explored factors influencing the uptake of crop insurance by smallholder sugarcane farmers in Lubombo region of Eswatini. The objectives of the study were to determine the socio-demographic characteristic of the sugarcane farmers, to determine awareness and willingness to insure sugarcane farms and also determine farmers’s attitudes and perceptions towards adopting crop insurance. Primary information was gathered using self structured, well-defined, and validated questionnaires through face to face interviews. The study revealed that only 54.3% of the respondents had knowledge about crop insurance. The results further indicate that female farmers who are educated and own title deed land are more likely to insure their sugarcane production. Therefore the study recommends that insurance organizations offering crop insurance and extension workers need to intensify the campaign of crop insurance especially among the male sugarcane farmers who have attained less formal education and mostly farm on Swazi-Nation Land.

Key-Words / Index Term :
Crop Insurance, Small-Scale Sugarcane Farmers, Perils, Premiums, Eswatini (Swaziland)

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