Rural household vulnerability and insurance against commodity risks - Evidence from the United Republic of Tanzania

Year of publication2007

AuthorFAO

PublisherFAO

AbstractThis report has two objectives. It assesses the nature and the extent of vulnerability among rural households in Tanzania with a particular focus on smallholder cash crop growers through exploring all risks, including the decline in commodity prices. It further explores the potential role for market based insurance schemes such as commodity price and weather based insurance to mitigate household vulnerability. The empirical analysis is based on two rounds of specifically designed r epresentative surveys of farm households in Kilimanjaro and Ruvuma, two cash crop growing regions in the United Republic of Tanzania in 2003 and 2004. The contrasting experiences of a richer (Kilimanjaro) and a poorer (Ruvuma) region substantially enriches the policy guidance emerging from the report. The report applies descriptive, econometric and contingent valuation techniques to achieve its objectives. The findings identify drought, health and commodity price shocks as the key risks faced by rural households in Kilimanjaro and Ruvuma. The welfare losses associated with these shocks are substantial. Households extensively use self and mutual insurance to cope with these shocks, but nonetheless, there remains substantial uninsured risks as indicated by the considerable stated demand for coffee and weather based insurance which could have important societal benefits. The latent demand for insurance further suggests that current ways of coping may not be eff icient and that there may be important economic opportunities which insurance could open up. Liquidity constraints emerge as important impediments in adopting such market based insurance schemes. Great care will need to go into the design and institutional delivery mechanisms of market based insurance. The establishment of interlinked markets such as input, credit and insurance packages deserves special attention in this regard. Finally, other, more traditional, public intervention s such as providing public health services, fostering connectivity and access to off-farm employment, and better water management techniques were also identified as promising household vulnerability reducing interventions.

 

ThemeAgricultural Commodities and Development

Product typeBook (stand-alone)

SeriesFAO Commodity and Trade Technical Paper

CountryUnited Republic of Tanzania

Areas of workEmerging Trends, Challenges and Opportunities

Keywordsagrobiodiversity; biodiversity conservation; indigenous peoples; livelihoods; evaluation; Ecuador