Assessing the role of crop insurance in mitigating household food insecurity among smallholder maize farmers in Goromonzi district, Zimbabwe.

Abstract

Achieving food security is a major objective in developing countries like Zimbabwe, whose economy largely depends on agriculture. However, the growing effects of climate change are making it more difficult to accomplish this goal due to the decline of agricultural output. Agricultural insurance is one of the most important enabling conditions for implementing, accelerating, and sustaining climate change adaptation into practice. Despite its importance, there is little empirical data on agricultural insurance, especially in smallholder farming communities that are more vulnerable to climate change risks. This study sought to investigate the role of crop insurance in mitigating household food insecurity among smallholder maize farmers in Goromonzi District. The study used a mixed-methods methodology, collecting data using partially arranged questions directed to smallholder farmers and comprehensive interviews with extension officers. Data was collected from 82 (48 insured and 34 non-insured) smallholder maize farmers and one extension officer. The results from the conducted interviews pointed to 13.7% ranking improving access to financial services number, followed by increase on crop yield (13.6%), improve in household food security (12.5%), peace of mind (10.9%), value change linkage benefits (10.9%) and crop price protection (8.5%). However, the participants indicated that the insurers are providing only multi-peril crop insurance, for drought and poor compensation was done without a proper assessment. The insured participants (54%) indicated that crop insurance is not effective in mitigating household food security among smallholder farmers. About 51% of the participants indicated that they had not heard of crop insurance, contrary to the expectation, since 58.54% of the participants were insured. Thus, the majority of the farmers had limited understanding of the concept of crop insurance due to the generally complicated nature of insurance and the lack of awareness by insurance providers to inform smallholder farmers about the significance and advantages of crop insurance. There is a need for intense awareness and demanding training. The study suggests developing an integrated index instead of just using weather index insurance that shields smallholder farmers from a larger proportion of their primary agricultural risks, such as weather-related and non-weather-induced risks, allowing them to bear the remaining risks alone.