Economic and social factors affecting the adoption of compulsory small ruminant insurance in Ahwaz County

Introduction: Unpredictable climate change and the resulting risks have always been one of the serious challenges for the agricultural development of developing countries, including Iran. Although ranchers and farmers in arid and semi-arid regions are at risk of losing part of their property due to pests, diseases and climatic shocks. But climatic shocks such as drought and floods are considered to be the most important causes of macro-level damage. Therefore, there is a need to limit the effects of natural disasters such as floods, which increase the active role of residents in flood-prone areas. Because, research has shown that risk management at the property level can reduce the effects of floods. Crop insurance could act as an effective tool for managing risks in Iran. For many years, livestock herder has confronted with the losses from natural disasters without livestock insurance. On average, 30% of natural disaster damages are covered by insurance worldwide. Also, in developed countries such as the United States and Canada, the compensation rate is much higher and is about 50 to 60 percent. Due to the relatively slow expansion of insurance in agricultural farms during economic development programs, as well as the requirements related to the performance of the functions of through the agricultural insurance fund, compulsory insurance as the main mechanism of insurance development and performance of the expected function of the agricultural insurance institution received more attention than before. Therefore, using the legal capacities and authorities to develop insurance, provide statistical information and details of members of provincial and city unions and cooperatives, make the allocation of all inputs and services to ranchers to receive and provide livestock insurance by the rancher and preparation and delivery The list of insurable livestock along with the premium to the relevant agency, expresses the need for ranchers to participate in the compulsory insurance plan. Compulsory small ruminant insurance is considered as an effective way to reduce livestock production risk and the most important strategies to achieve to security of income and stability of production. However, few empirical studies have been done on the influence of socio-economic factors on compulsory livestock insurance in Iran. However, in our country, due to the possibility of climate change and other natural disasters, farmers and ranchers in the event of events such as drought or sudden rains and hail, floods, storms and other events that are under control. They do not have much power, they suffer a lot of damage. Given this important issue, in the present study the factors influence the adoption of compulsory small ruminant insurance in Ahwaz County in the south of Iran is survived.
Material and methods: This study investigates factors affecting adoption of compulsory small ruminant insurance in rural areas of Ahwaz County, using Logit regression model. The main purpose of using the logit model is to answer the question of what factors affect the acceptance or non-acceptance of insurance by farmers. Also at this stage, the question is answered whether farmers affected by the flood of 2019 are more willing to accept compulsory livestock insurance or not?. Therefore, small ruminant ranchers in Ahvaz County should be divided into two general groups. The first group consisted of ranchers who accepted compulsory small ruminant insurance, and the second group included ranchers who did not accept compulsory insurance. In this model, the dependent variable is zero (non-acceptance of insurance) and one (acceptance of insurance). According to the 2019 flood in Ahwaz County as one of the most important region of livestock production, this county selected as the case study of present study. Data and information required for this study are collected using cluster sampling and questionnaires completed livestock producers in 2020. In the first part of the questionnaire, information about economic variables such as number of livestock, income, as well as social variables including age, household size, rancher experience, literacy level, etc. were asked. In this questionnaire, in addition to the above, the impact of damage caused by natural disasters (floods) and as well as the amount of damage in terms of the number of livestock and the amount of damage were also included in the questionnaire. In the second part, ranchers were asked about accepting or not accepting compulsory insurance. The sample size was estimated 250 based on Cochran formula. Also, the reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by calculating Cranach’s alpha coefficient. The factors that affect by livestock herder’s purchase or not pay for the premium of compulsory livestock insurance are contain age, education, herd size, type of livestock, awareness of compulsory livestock insurance, 2019 flood experience, livestock ownership, access to the brokers and veterinary services, benefits and receive of compensation.
Results and discussion: The results of the Logit model showed that, age, awareness of insurance benefits, education, type of livestock ownership, access to the broker, access to veterinary services, and the experience of the 2019 flood have a significant effect on compulsory insurance acceptance. Also, all variables have a positive and significant effect on the acceptance of compulsory small ruminants insurance in Ahwaz county and increase the possibility of accepting insurance. The results also showed that, according to the classification intended for the level of satisfaction with previous insurance policies, the level of satisfaction of ranchers (55% of ranchers) of these policies is very low (maximum frequency).
Conclusion: According to the results obtained some suggestions were provided such as allocating facilities and credits to institutions, fulfilling the obligations of the insurer, providing higher quality educational services, and informing ranchers to accept insurance.