Farmer's adoption of agricultural insurance for Mediterranean crops as an innovative behavior

Abstract

Agriculture is a risky industry and is present in every management choice the farmer makes. Farms can experiment with different tools that can contain the impact of adverse events to protect production facilities, investments, and income generated by farming. This is the context for the study conducted in Sicily on a sample of farms of different types to explain farmers' decision-making process in adopting insurance offered in the subsidized market. The study adopted three socio-psychological constructs, Attitude (ATT), Subjective Norm (S.N.), and Perceived Behavioural Control (PBC), derived from the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). It proposed the addition of a new construct, Risk Factors (RISK), and farm type. The results indicated that factors including Attitude, S.N., and PBC are positively significant when understanding farmers' intentions to adopt insurance. However, the additional factors included in the regression model (RISK and farm type) were statistically insignificant, rejecting the efficiency of an extended theory of planned behavior framework. Based on these results, it was concluded that combining extension services to improve awareness of the importance of insurance facilitated by the public contribution service could significantly influence farmers' intention to adopt it.