Impact of weather index crop insurance on smallholder farmers’ multidimensional food security: evidence from Ethiopia

ABSTRACT

Weather events have threatened the realization of food security in Ethiopia. Weather-index crop insurance (WICI) is a risk-transferring strategy recently introduced to farmers in Ethiopia. The study aims to assess the impact of WICI on smallholder farmers' multidimensional food security. To realize its objective, relevant indicators, and the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke index were applied to capture the multidimensional realities of food security and the propensity score matching technique to examine the impact. The results show that WICI has a significant positive impact on smallholder farmers' availability, access, utilization and food stability. Besides, the insured farmers have lower incidence, depth, and severity of food insecurity by 9.44%, 3.24% and 1.06% than non-insured farmers. Thus, to realize progress in food security, we advocate improving smallholder farmers' access to affordable WICI products: the existing pilot crop insurance projects shall be used as a milestone to establish an all-inclusive crop insurance program in Ethiopia. The study urges due attention and integrated efforts to build a reliable weather database system and solve smallholder farmers' meager willingness to pay. It contributes to the debate on how WICI impacts farmers' multidimensional food security, arouses further studies on the issue and policy action on building shock-resilient food security.

KEYWORDS:

• Food security
• propensity score matching
• smallholder farmers
• weather index insurance

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Adigrat University for its financial support while conducting the study. Indeed, the respondents, editors, reviewers who devoted their insights and knowledge, and all other secondary data sources used are also duly acknowledged.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Adigrat University research and community service directorate financially supported the study.

Notes on contributors

Yohannes Halefom Gebretsadik

Yohannes Halefom Gebretsadik is a Lecturer and Researcher at Adigrat University, Department of Agricultural Economics, Ethiopia. He obtained Bachelor's in Economics from Alpha University College and MSc in Development Economics from Aksum University. He teaches undergraduate courses including macroeconomics, international trade, food security & agricultural policy, project planning & management, and farm management. Yohannes has authored two types of research: the impact of nonfarm activities on farmers' income poverty and rural livelihood diversification and poverty. Since 2005, he has worked in Ethiopia in a wide range of fields: agricultural extension, he was M&E specialist in various development programs-household asset building programs, rural livelihood improvement programs and manager of food and nutritional security program.

Kahsay Gebru Tesfay

Kahsay Gebru Tesfay is a graduate assistant at Adigrat University Department of Agricultural Economics, Tigray Region, Ethiopia. He was born in Ethiopia, and obtained his Bachelor's in Agricultural Economics from Aksum University. He teaches undergraduate courses: Natural Resource and Environmental Economics, Entrepreneurship and Small Scale Business Management and Farming System and Livelihood Analysis.