Uptake of insurance-embedded credit in presence of credit rationing: evidence from a randomized controlled trial in Kenya
ISSN: 0002-1466
Article publication date: 23 June 2020
Issue publication date: 5 October 2020
Abstract
Purpose
Drought-related climate risk and access to credit are among the major risks to agricultural productivity for smallholder farmers in Kenya. Farmers are usually credit-constrained due to either involuntary quantity rationing or voluntary risk rationing. By exploiting randomized distribution of weather risk-contingent credit (RCC) and traditional credit, the authors estimate the causal effect of bundling weather index insurance to credit on uptake of agricultural credits among rural smallholders in Eastern Kenya. Further, the authors assess farmers' credit rationing, its determinants and effects on credit uptake.
Design/methodology/approach
The study design was a randomized controlled trial (RCT) conducted in Machakos County, Kenya. 1,170 sample households were randomly assigned to one of three research groups, namely control, RCC and traditional credit. This paper is based on baseline household survey data and the first phase of loan implementation data.
Findings
The authors find that 48% of the households were price-rationed, 41% were risk-rationed and 11% were quantity-rationed. The average credit uptake rate was 33% with the uptake of bundled credit being significantly higher than that of traditional credit. Risk rationing seems to influence the credit uptake negatively, whereas premium subsidies do not have any significant association with credit uptake. Among the socio-economic variables, training attendance, crop production being the main household head occupation, expenditure on food, maize labour requirement, hired labour, livestock revenue and access to credit are found to influence the credit uptake positively, whereas the expenditure on non-food items is negatively related with credit uptake.
Research limitations/implications
The study findings provide important insights on the factors of credit demand. Empirical results suggest that risk rationing is pervasive and discourages farmers to take up credit. The study results also imply that credit demand is inelastic although relatively small sample size for RCC premium subsidy groups may be a limiting factor to the authors’ estimation.
Originality/value
By implementing a multi-arm RCT, the authors estimate the factors affecting the uptake of insurance bundled agricultural credits along with eliciting credit rationing among rural smallholders in Eastern Kenya. This paper provides key empirical findings on the uptake of RCC and the effect of credit rationing on uptake of agricultural credits, a field which has been majorly theoretical.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research is part of Michael K. Ndegwa's doctoral dissertation at the Natural Resources Institute of University of Greenwich supported by the Vice Chancellor's Scholarship. This research was supported partly by the Global Resilience Partnership (GRP) through the Round 1 Global Resilience Challenge, supported by USAID in the context of a project titled “Satellite Technologies, Innovative and Smart Financing for Food Security (SATISFy)” and partly by Agricultural Insurance Thematic Window of the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie). The work was also undertaken as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) led by IFPRI. The authors appreciate the local implementation support and generous hospitality provided by their project partner Equity Bank Kenya Ltd and the important role played by APA Insurance, Kenya. The opinions expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the views of their donor or partners. Any errors that may remain are the authors' responsibility.
Citation
Ndegwa, M.K., Shee, A., Turvey, C.G. and You, L. (2020), "Uptake of insurance-embedded credit in presence of credit rationing: evidence from a randomized controlled trial in Kenya", Agricultural Finance Review, Vol. 80 No. 5, pp. 745-766. https://doi.org/10.1108/AFR-10-2019-0116
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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