Open Journal of Business and Management, 2017, 5, 215-229
http://www.scirp.org/journal/ojbm
ISSN Online: 2329-3292
ISSN Print: 2329-3284
DOI: 10.4236/ojbm.2017.52020 April 13, 2017
Evaluating the Constraints to Development of
Agricultural Insurance for Cashew Crop
Farmers in Brong-Ahafo Region of Ghana
Nicholas Oppong Mensah
1
, Simon Cudjo Fialor
2
, Edward Yeboah
3
1
Department of Agricultural Economics, Agribusiness and Extension and KNUST School of Business, Kumasi, Ghana
2
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana
3
University Post Office, Kumasi, Ghana
Abstract
Research evidence from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture
(CIAT) in 2011 gives credence to the notion that cashew development would
mitigate the impact of climate change on cocoa in 2012. This makes cashew
development imperative, however to do so requires access to credit from fi-
nancial institutions, which ration credits when it comes to lending to the
agricultural sector. Research evidence has shown a correlation between agri-
cultural insurance and loan uptake in Malawi and Ghana. However an evalua-
tion of the cashew subsector in the Brong-Ahafo Region of Ghana with an aim
of developing agricultural insurance schemes for cashew crop farmers has not
been without constraints. This study sought to investigate the key constraints
that would impede the development of agricultural insurance for cashew crop
farmers in the BrongAhafo Region of Ghana. Based on a positivist research
philosophy, the study employed quantitative techniques. A multistage sam-
pling technique was employed, which involved purposively selecting stake-
holders of Ghana Agricultural Insurance Pool (GAIP). A simple random sam-
pling technique was also employed to select 30 pool stakeholders from GAIP.
Data were collected by means of structured questionnaires. Data were ana-
lyzed by employing descriptive statistics, and the Kendall coefficient of con-
cordance was used in identifying and analyzing the perceived constraints to
developing agricultural insurance for the cashew crop farmers in the study
area. The result from the survey indicated that high marketing cost; high pre-
miums (making the product unaffordable); lack of agricultural insurance leg-
islation; low availability of data; lack of knowledge about product develop-
ment; and lack of qualified personnel in the area of agricultural insurance
were some of the perceived constraints that would impede the development of
agricultural insurance in the study area. Thus a Public Private Partnership
How to cite this paper: Mensah, N.O.,
Fialor, S.C. and Yeboah, E. (2017) Eva-
luating the Constraints to Development of
Agricultural Insurance for Cashew Crop
Farmers in Brong-Ahafo Region of Ghana.
Open Journal of Business and Manage-
ment, 5, 215-229.
https://doi.org/10.4236/ojbm.2017.52020
Received: July 8, 2016
Accepted: April 8, 2017
Published: April 13, 2017
Copyright © 2017 by authors and
Scientific Research Publishing Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative
Commons Attribution International
License (CC BY 4.0).
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Open Access