Attitude of indigenous chicken farmers towards agricultural insurance in Nyanza, Kenya

Abstract

Indigenous chicken (IC) contribute significantly to income and food security of rural communities. However, the IC are kept in systems that are characterised by high risk conditions such as diseases, predation, inadequate feeding and poor housing resulting in sub optimal production levels and profitability. Agricultural insurance therefore becomes an attractive option of minimizing these risks. Uptake of agricultural insurance on IC remains low in Kenya. Furthermore, information on agricultural insurance as a tool of minimizing risk is limited. The objective of the study was to investigate IC farmers’ attitude towards agricultural insurance with the aim of providing important information to insurance firms and compensation schemes targeting IC. Structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data from 240 IC farmers in Nyanza region using a multi stage sampling procedure. Mean score from a five point Likert type scale was used to analyze agricultural insurance attitude of IC farmers. Results established that IC farmers had a positive attitude towards agricultural insurance. Farmers indicated that agricultural production was faced with a variety of risks and uncertainty and that insurance was beneficial and reduces production related stress. However, they were willing to pay for an insurance scheme publicly owned and that agricultural insurance should be mandatory. Therefore, the study recommends that government and non-governmental organization need to sensitize IC farmers on the importance of agricultural insurance policy. Insurance firms need to reach out to the farmers on their role in mitigating risk, offer their products and services and charge affordable insurance premium to them.