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The purpose of this paper is to determine which factors influence the choice to adopt subsidized multi-peril crop insurance (MPCI) in the Netherlands and whether prior hail insurance uptake is one of the determinants of MPCI adoption. In addition, it is analyzed whether subsidized MPCI has reduced disaster relief spending.

Cross-sectional survey with 512 respondents using a stratified design comprising MPCI adopters and non-adopters sampled from the Dutch national census data base. The national census, including information on subsidized MPCI adoption from 2010 up to and including 2015, was supplemented with information on (prior) traditional market-based hail insurance uptake, and other underlying determining factors were elicited. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine which factors influence the choice to adopt MPCI.

Analysis of MPCI adoption reveals that subsidized MPCI mainly substituted for market-based hail insurance uptake up to now. Growers who did not insure against hail in the past were hardly reached. Approximately, three-quarter of MPCI adopters insured hail prior to market introduction of MPCI. In the arable sector, MPCI adoption was 2.89 (p<0.01) more likely for prior hail insurance adopters compared to non-adopters, while it was 9.67 (p<0.01) more likely in the fruit sector.

In the arable sector, it is expected that MPCI uptake in the coming years will reach more prior non-adopters of hail insurance as demand is expected to increase. Prior hail insurance adopters in the arable sector can be seen as the early MPCI adopters. In the fruit sector, adoption rates are already at a relative high level and a further significant increase by targeting non-adopters of hail insurance is not likely.

Governmental support has crowded out to some extend traditional market-based hail insurance in the Netherlands. Since the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union is creating more momentum to subsidize crop insurance more member states with a long history of a mature hail insurance market may be confronted with similar crowding-out effects.

This research seeks to assess the impact of a credit-linked insurance bundle in Zambia, in terms of the inputs used and the amount of maize subsequently produced and sold.

To estimate the impact of a credit-linked insurance bundle, this research relies on a natural field experiment. A cross-sectional survey, conducted among 409 households that enrolled in a credit-linked insurance program prior to a drought and adverse market conditions, revealed that 252 households dropped out of the program. Of these, 113 households left for an exogenous, involuntary reason (i.e. group loan was not repaid on time).

A comparison of households that used the program and those that dropped out reveals that smallholders who lost the credit-linked insurance bundle purchased less fertilizer (−36%), and this input restriction resulted in diminished harvests (−27%) and less quantity sold (−31%).

Risk-exposed smallholders tend to be severely credit constrained, so they cannot invest in sufficient inputs to increase their yields. A credit-linked insurance scheme provides such risk-exposed smallholders, who lack or have only limited collateral, with commercial agricultural credit services and greater access to input. The current analysis cannot specifically attribute the impact of individual components of the bundle (i.e. credit, insurance and input supply), but the overall impact is substantial. The implication of this research is that policy initiatives which support a credit-linked insurance system should not only encourage upscaling but also resilience of the scheme.

Aligning government and public support programs with private initiatives suggests opportunities for greater benefits.

African farmers are mainly smallholders, so they face inherent production risks. They also tend to be severely credit constrained, with few means to mitigate these risks, so they suffer from a limited capacity to invest in improved farm technology systems that might increase their productivity. Insured input bundles could help farmers to cope better with adverse risks and facilitate increase productivity.

This research design exploits the peculiarity of the data, including group liability and a strict time window for loan repayments to remain eligible in a forthcoming growing season. This impact assessment approach is rigorous in controlling for self-selection bias and thus offers opportunities to establish how households in each sub-sample (eligible or not) are (un)able to ride out a lean season, following a drought and adverse market conditions.

Institutional structures of rural savings and loan associations influence their performances. One of the guiding principles for defining clear group membership boundaries is by setting rules on who has access. Social ties is a prominent requirement for membership. The objective of the current study is to provide quantitative evidence on the role of social ties membership criteria for the performance of saving and loan associations.

A cross-sectional survey was conducted in July–August 2019 comprising 48 associations in 13 villages in the Iringa District of Tanzania. In the current study, the authors use two indicators to measure the social ties between members, namely social closed association (the association applies criteria to accept only members who are relatives, friends or from the same hamlet) and physical distance (the fraction of members from other villages).

The authors find that associations are diverse both in terms of social ties, physical distance and performance, even in a small homogeneous region like Iringa District. Providing loans more easily to members with social ties has a negative relationship with loan repayment rates. Associations applying the social closeness criteria experience higher default rates than those not applying. The default rates become even worse when the fraction of member members from other villages increases in the socially tied associations.

Physically distant members are more likely to default as they perceive less social pressure in an association with socially tied members. Development practitioners and policy makers should integrate the potential implications.

The authors provide empirical evidence on the relevance of social ties on credit access and repayment in savings and loan associations, using a novel multi-level data on financial performance in the context of community-based finance organizations in rural areas.

The purpose of this paper is to assess direct and indirect damages of dairy processors and pig and poultry slaughterhouses in The Netherlands following the occurrence of a feed crisis.

Starting from a number of feed crisis scenarios the paper analyses processing industry damage parameters through a combination of sector data and individual company assessments. In case of confidential data, outcomes are presented as indices.

The paper finds that, in the most likely scenario, it is expected that a feed crisis affects 15 processors, i.e. 20 per cent of processing business in The Netherlands. Processors' direct damage is largely (>90 per cent) determined by the mixing of produce during various phases of processing. Indirect damage is on average perceived not to exceed direct damage.

The results are useful in current stakeholder debates on sharing damage burdens of feed crises across supply chain partners.

This paper extends currently available risk analyses of feed contaminations by eliciting damage beyond farm level.

In self‐directed retirement plans, farmers are responsible for selecting the types of risky investments toward which the funds in their retirement plan are allocated. Furthermore, farmers do not necessarily purchase sufficient annuities with their savings upon retirement. There is little empirical evidence on the level of income sought or obtained. The purpose of this study is to analyze the long‐term investment behavior with respect to retirement planning.

Two types of data were merged for the analysis: data from the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) cross‐sectional dataset, and subjective data collected by a questionnaire survey. A response rate of 39 percent was achieved enabling analysis of 440 farm records. By means of regression analysis, the impact of subjective elements, for example level of income sought, as well as farm structure and financial farm characteristics on income obtained at the time of retirement were revealed.

By decomposing the underlying decision alternatives, it was shown that the long‐term investment behavior differed substantially among farmers, but the alternative decisions made were hardly affected by structural and objective parameters. The current study reveals the dilemma faced by any farmer who has the option to invest in his own business. Off‐farm retirement investments simply provide an alternative destination for investible funds and it is a rational decision to invest these funds in their own business, thus making the farm itself their retirement “nest‐egg”. However, a discrepancy between the level of income sought and obtained was found.

There is a need to study how farmers can be encouraged to use existing options for obtaining a more comprehensive retirement plan.

In the investigated case, farmers are entitled like all residents to receive retirement benefits provided by the state, referred to as state pension. The use of three alternative retirement plans complementing the state‐sponsored retirement benefits is investigated. Perceptions about whether or not the state pension was sufficient to rely on as the sole source of income did not affect participation in a retirement plan. This stresses the importance that the contributions made and assets reserved should be regularly evaluated and reviewed (via, for example, extension or internet tools) to ensure that the available capital will meet the future income sought.

It is a challenge to identify the adequacy to attain retirement readiness by self‐directed investment plans. The strategic choices to be made are complex, while the outcome is risky. In the current study, the long‐term investment behavior with respect to retirement planning is analyzed by decomposing the underlying decision alternatives.

The purpose of this paper is to review the most recent scientific literature on the determinants explaining the demand for index-insurance, the impact of index-insurance and the existing links between insurance and credit. In this meta-analysis, the authors identify key discoveries on the potential of index-insurance in enhancing credit supply for smallholders and thus farm productivity.

Following a systematic literature search in Scopus and Web of Science, relevant empirical articles were identified by using the following criteria search algorithm: “insurance” and (“weather” or “micro” or “area?based” or “rain*” or “livestock” or “index”), and ((“empiric*” or “experiment” or “trial” or “RCT” or “impact”) or (“credit” or “loan*” or “debt” or “finance”)). The authors identified 1,133 related papers, 110 of which were selected as closely matching the study criteria. After removing duplicates and analysing each document, 45 papers were included in the current analysis. The framework for addressing insurance and credit issues, in the paper, entails three subsequent themes, namely, adoption of insurance, impact of insurance and links between insurance and credit.

It is not confirmed yet that demand for insurance is indeed hump-shaped in risk aversion and the functional form of this relationship should be tested in more detail. This also holds for the magnitude of the effect of trust and education on actual demand. Furthermore, it is unclear to what extent other risk mitigation strategies form complements or substitutes to index-insurance. Lastly, the interaction between basis risk and price is important to the design of index-insurance products. If basis risk and price elasticity are indeed highly correlated, products that diminish basis risk are crucial in increasing demand. On the impact of bundled products, e.g. combination of insurance and credit, limited empirical research has been conducted. For example, it is unknown to what extent credit suppliers would react to the insured status of farmers or what the preferences of farmers are when it comes to a mix of financial products. In addition, several researchers have suggested that microfinance institutions or banks could insure themselves against covariate risk, yet no empirical evidence about this insurance mechanism has been conducted so far.

The authors based the research on scientific literature uploaded in Scopus and Web of Science. Other potentially insightful grey literature was not included due to lack of accessibility. Given the research findings, there is plenty of opportunity for further research particularly with regard to the effects of bundled products, e.g. insurance plus credit, on demand for index-insurance, supply of credit, loan conditions and impact on farm productivity and farmers’ well-being.

Microfinance institutions, insurance companies, NGOs, research institutions and universities, particularly in developing countries, will be interested to learn about the systematic review of scientific research done in the area of insurance and credit for agriculture and the possibilities for application in their own practice of supplying these financial products.

A rigorous understanding of the potential of index-insurance and credit is essential for identifying the right mix of financial products that help smallholder farmers to increase farm productivity and their own well-being.

The paper is valuable due to its rigorous evaluation of existing theoretical and empirical research around issues explaining the degree of adoption and impact of index-insurance and that of bundled financial products (i.e. index-insurance plus credit). The paper has the potential to become essential reading for academics, practitioners and policy-makers interested in researching and putting in practice the best options leading to greater farm productivity and well-being in developing countries.