Assessing The Factors for Farmers’ Awareness of Crop Insurance: Insights from Drought-Stressed Crop Farming Communities in Bangladesh

Abstract

Abstract. Drought is an almost annual phenomenon that distresses many parts of Bangladesh, causing substantial damage to crop production and broader economic losses. Crop insurance has emerged as a crucial risk mitigation tool in the crop farming sector. This paper investigates farmers’ awareness of crop insurance and their sources of knowledge in drought-stressed communities in Bangladesh, using primary survey data collected from 150 farm households in Naogaon district. Regression results indicate that almost 34.67% of the respondents are aware of crop insurance, while 65.33% are unaware, and institutional sources dominated farmers' knowledge about crop insurance with 82.70%, mainly financial institutions with 65.11%, whereas only 17.30% farmers received information from non-institutional channels, basically media and peer farmers.  The logistic regression model 1 shows that education, extension services, membership in farm organizations, risk-management strategies, and experience of crop damage significantly increase farmers’ likelihood of being aware of crop insurance, while age and farming experience have no visible influence. The findings from model 2 reveal that education, extension services, and membership in farm organizations meaningfully increased farmers' likelihood of obtaining crop insurance information, while other explanatory variables have no noticeable impact. Moreover, the results on factors affecting farmers’ awareness of and institutional sources of knowledge about crop insurance assist policymakers and practitioners in drafting the guidelines and strategies for more inclusive interventions for evidence-based crop agriculture risk management and building farmer resilience.