Research Title: Crop Insurance and Sustainable Land Management: Farmer’s Perceptions and Trends

Country (Area): Burundi

Key words: Land Management, Risk, Crop Insurance, Farmers, Perception

In Burundi, agricultural field is characterized by a low food production due to shortage of land, use of unimproved seeds and poor land management practices.

Farmers are facing with covariate risks especially those related to weather hazards. Therefore, they prefer to invest the minimum and have the certainty of having some production, instead of opting for high investment and agricultural production but facing the risk for failure. For that reason, crop insurability and access to other financial supports like credit could be a potential strategy to increase farmers’ willingness to invest in land management practices and increase agricultural production.

Then, the research wants firstly to investigate how farm characteristics and farmer variables impact perceptions of risk factors. Secondly, it will focus on how these factors combined with risk perceptions influence economic behavior and related risk management strategies.

The main objective of this research is to analyze to what extent crop insurance helps farmers to overcome risks associated to farming, and how this influences farmers’ investments in sustainable land management.