Factors affecting the attitude towards agricultural insurance among small scale farmers in Uganda: a case study of Mityana District

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess the factors affecting the attitude towards agricultural insurance among small scale farmers in Uganda. Primary data was obtained from the small scale farmers in Mityana district. The quantitative cross-sectional study involved distribution of 100 sets questionnaires to the small scale farmers who practiced crop production, livestock and both crop production and livestock. Univariate analysis, Bivariate analysis, and Binary logistic regression were performed on the variables in the study using STATA. Under the univariate analysis, more than half of the respondents were male (60%) and the remaining were female (40%). Almost half of the respondents were Catholic (47.37%) followed by Anglican (31.58%) plus Muslims and Pentecostal who were few (12.63%) and (8.42) respectively. More than half of the small-scale farmers practiced both livestock and crop production (53.68%) whereas a third of the farmers practiced only crop production (30.53%) and the least from only livestock (15.79%). Over a half of the farmers who had not heard about agricultural insurance were 63.16% and 36.84% who had heard about agricultural insurance. In the bivariate analysis, there was significant relationships between small scale farmers interested in having agricultural insurance coverage for their livestock and crops and level of education, those who have ever heard about agricultural insurance, those who thought agricultural insurance premiums are fairly priced, mode of payment of premiums, those who believed agricultural insurance can protect against unforeseen risks and farmers who thought agricultural insurance is a better risk management strategy (p<0.1). In the multivariate analysis, farmers who had attained secondary level of education were 35.49 times more likely than those who did not have education to have a positive attitude towards agricultural insurance (p<0.05). Those who have heard about agricultural insurance were 73.89 times more likely than those who did not to have a positive attitude towards agricultural insurance (p<0.05). Those who thought quarterly mode of paying premiums is the best were 36.20 times more likely to have a positive attitude towards agricultural insurance (p<0.05). And also, farmers who thought agricultural insurance can protect against unforeseen risks were 49.39 times more likely than those who did not to have a positive attitude towards agricultural insurance (p<0.05). The findings from the study indicate that there’s need for the local insurance companies to sensitize the small-scale farmers about the importance and benefits of agricultural insurance.