Factors Influencing Farmers' Willingness to Pay for Weather Index Insurance Through Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis: Insights from a Pilot in Jiangxi Province, China

摘要

Weather index insurance plays an important role in helping farmers avoid their economic loss from weather risk. There is increasing numbers of pilot areas of weather index insurance in China while the studies show its take-up has been disappointing low in many other developing countries. This study aims to explore the status of weather index insurance and its processing problems in China through the factors influencing farmers' willingness to pay for Low-Temperature Index-based Mandarin Orange Insurance in Nangfeng County. The Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis is conducted for the influencing factors, including strike level, premium, pay-out, planting cost, effect of low temperature, insurance claim process, trust in insurance and government subsidy. The result shows the combination of expensive premium, low payout, high planting cost, low government subsidy and distrust in insurance company causes farmers' unwillingness to pay for Low Temperature Index-based Mandarin Orange Insurance, among which distrust is core factor. Expensive premium, low payout, high planting cost and low subsidy from government are main influencing factors.