Findings from COMSATS University Islamabad Yields New Findings on Risk Management (Analysis of wheat farmers’ risk perceptions and attitudes: evidence from Punjab, Pakistan)

2020 FEB 26 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators publish new report on Risk Management. According to news reporting originating from Vehari, Pakistan, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Agriculture involves multiple risks of which environmental and production threats are major ones. Farmers’ risk attitudes and risk perceptions have a significant role in dealing with their decisions, farm-relevant practices and management exposure to risk.”

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from COMSATS University Islamabad, “Developing countries have carried out limited research work on the variety of risk management issues. This research work quantifies farmers’ attitudes and perceptions of different types of risks, such as which wheat crop is grown. The study relies on a survey of six wheat-producing districts containing household farms with 402 wheat-producing farmers in Punjab, Pakistan. To discover farmer’ attitudes toward risks, the Equally Likely Certainty Equivalent approach has been employed, with the ranking of farmers’ perceptions of four disastrous risk sources, storm rainfall and hail, drought, high input prices and wheat diseases, using a risk matrix. A probit model was employed to analyze the empirical estimation of factors affecting farmers’ attitudes and perceptions. The findings of the study indicate that the majority of the farmers have a risk-averse nature and consider storm rainfall and hail, drought, high input prices and wheat diseases as major threats to their wheat crops. Empirical findings of the study show that gender, religion, age, farming experience, education, credit, farming area, livestock numbers and off-farm income have significant (positive or negative) effects on farmers’ attitudes toward risk and risk perceptions. The study provides a convenient analysis for farmers, researchers, extension services, the agricultural insurance sector, and agriculture policy makers.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Policy makers and researchers need to understand farmers’ risk attitudes and risks, providing them with precise knowledge regarding risks and refined risk management tools, and ensuring the provision of agricultural financing and contemporary agricultural extension services.”

For more information on this research see: Analysis of wheat farmers’ risk perceptions and attitudes: evidence from Punjab, Pakistan. Natural Hazards, 2019;95(3):845-861. Natural Hazards can be contacted at: Springer, 233 Spring St, New York, NY 10013, USA. (Springer - www.springer.com; Natural Hazards - http://www.springerlink.com/content/0921-030x/)

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting D. Ahmad, COMSATS University Islamabad, Dept. of Management Sciences, Vehari Campus, Vehari, Pakistan. Additional authors for this research include M. Afzal and A. Rauf.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-018-3523-5. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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