Risk management and the potential of cattle insurance in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia

Bishu, Kinfe Gebreegziabher

Risk management and the potential of cattle insurance in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia

dc.check.embargoformat	Not applicable	en
dc.check.info	No embargo required	en
dc.check.opt-out	Not applicable	en
dc.check.reason	No embargo required	en
dc.check.type	No Embargo Required
dc.contributor.advisor	O'Reilly, Seamus	en
dc.contributor.advisor	Lahiff, Edward	en
dc.contributor.advisor	Steiner, Bodo E.	en
dc.contributor.author	Bishu, Kinfe Gebreegziabher
dc.contributor.funder	Irish Aid	en
dc.date.accessioned	2014-05-08T13:32:06Z
dc.date.available	2014-05-08T13:32:06Z
dc.date.issued	2014
dc.date.submitted	2014
dc.description.abstract	This study explores the role of livestock insurance to complement existing risk management strategies adopted by smallholder farmers. Using survey data, first, it provides insights into farmers’ risk perception of livestock farming, in terms of likelihood and severity of risk, attitude to risk and their determinants. Second, it examines farmers’ risk management strategies and their determinants. Third, it investigates farmers’ potential engagement with a hypothetical cattle insurance decision and their intensity of participation. Factor analysis is used to analyse risk sources and risk management, multiple regressions are used to identify the determinants; a Heckman model was used to investigate cattle insurance participation and intensity of participation. The findings show different groups of farmers display different risk attitude in their decision-making related to livestock farming. Production risk (especially livestock diseases) was perceived as the most likely and severe source of risk. Disease control was perceived as the best strategy to manage risk overall. Disease control and feed management were important strategies to mitigate the production risks. Disease control and participation on safety net program were found to be important to counter households’ financial risks. With regard to the hypothetical cattle insurance scheme, 94.38% of households were interested to participate in cattle insurance. Of those households that accepted cattle insurance, 77.38% of the households were willing to pay the benchmark annual premium of 4% of the animal value while for the remaining households this was not affordable. The average number of cattle that farmers were willing to insure was 2.71 at this benchmark. Results revealed that income (log income) and education levels influenced positively and significantly farmers’ participation in cattle insurance and the number of cattle to insure. The findings prompt policy makers to consider livestock insurance as a complement to existing risk management strategies to reduce poverty in the long-run.	en
dc.description.status	Not peer reviewed	en
dc.description.version	Accepted Version
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en
dc.identifier.citation	Bishu, K. G. 2014. Risk management and the potential of cattle insurance in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.	en
dc.identifier.endpage	225
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10468/1550
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.publisher	University College Cork	en
dc.rights	© 2014, Kinfe G. Bishu	en
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/	en
dc.subject	Risk perception	en
dc.subject	Risk management	en
dc.subject	Factor analysis	en
dc.subject	Livestock insurance	en
dc.subject	Tigray	en
dc.subject	Ethiopia	en
dc.thesis.opt-out	false
dc.title	Risk management and the potential of cattle insurance in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia	en
dc.type	Doctoral thesis	en
dc.type.qualificationlevel	Doctoral	en
dc.type.qualificationname	PhD (Commerce)	en
ucc.workflow.supervisor	s.oreilly@ucc.ie