Assessment of the Levels of awareness and use of Agricultural Insurance Scheme among the Rural farmers in Kogi State, Nigeria

Type Journal Article - International Journal of Agricultural Science Research and Technology
Title Assessment of the Levels of awareness and use of Agricultural Insurance Scheme among the Rural farmers in Kogi State, Nigeria
Author(s)
Volume 2
Issue 3
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2012
Page numbers 143-148
URL http://ijasrt.webs.com/2012.3-7.143-148.Ibitoye, ijasrt 50-01.pdf
Abstract
The study investigated the levels of awareness and use of agricultural insurance scheme in Kogi State
of Nigeria. A total of 240 respondents from eight communities were selected through a multistage
random sampling technique. Data collected through structured questionnaire were analyzed using
descriptive statistic, percentages and sigma scoring model. The results revealed that farmers in the State
are mostly males (95%) with low levels of education and an average farm size of 3.2 hectares. The
study further revealed that majority of the farmers belong to low income group with about 55 percent
earning less than N100,000.00 per annum. The sigma score of 5.04 for the level of awareness showed a
high level of awareness of agricultural insurance scheme among the rural farmers in the state. However,
the sigma score of 3.26 reported for the level of use revealed a low level of agricultural insurance usage
in the area. The major sources of information of agricultural insurance scheme to the farmers were
cooperative societies (66%) and extension agents (65%). The major problems preventing the usage of
agricultural insurance by the farmers in the State were fear of failure to honour agreement (75%), high
insurance premium (66%), inadequate financial resources (65%) and non-coverage of many crops
(61%). The study then recommended among others, the prompt payment of benefits to farmers and
expansion of the scope of the scheme to cover other major crops.

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