Assessment of Crop Farmers’ Willingness To Take (WTT) Agricultural Insurance Scheme in Kogi State, Nigeria: Application of Turnbull Estimator.

Abstract

The study used Turnbull estimator to design the average price, upper and lower bound price for agricultural insurance uptake by crop farmers in Kogi State. This has become imperative considering the use of weak descriptive statistical tools for similar studies in the country. The study specifically described the socioeconomic characteristics of crop farmers, assessed farmers’ awareness on agricultural insurance scheme, determined the factors influencing farmers’ willingness to take agricultural insurance and evaluated the average price that crop farmers are willing to take agricultural insurance. A multi-staged sampling technique was used to select one hundred and fifty (150) crop farming households for the study and structured questionnaire was used to elicit data from the respondents. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, sigma score, probit regression model and the Turnbull estimator. Results showed that 77% of the farmers were males with a mean age of 40years and an average household size of 9 members. A low (sigma score of 4.59) level of crop farmers’ awareness on agricultural insurance was recorded; however, 72% of the farmers were willing to take agricultural insurance. The significant variables influencing willingness to take agricultural insurance by the farmers were education (β=1.03), marital status (β=-0.82), cultivated land (β=-0.01) and land ownership (β=1.20). The average willingness to pay (WTP) for agricultural insurance by the respondents was N2, 035/plot and N8, 140/ha ($1 = N306). The study therefore, recommended increase in literacy level among crop farmers and provision of agricultural insurance services at affordable rate.