FFS - Small farmer vulnerability and climate risk: Index insurance as a financial fix

By S. Ryan Isakson

By its very nature, agriculture is a risky endeavor. Farmers not only face natural threats from pests, plant disease, and inclement weather, but many must also worry about fluctuating input costs, uncertain prices for their output, and, ultimately,…

Listed in Article | publication by group Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l’alimentation

Preview publication

Version 1.0 - published on 19 Mar 2025 doi:10.15353/cfs-rcea.v2i2.109 - cite this

Licensed under Creative Commons BY 4.0

Description

By its very nature, agriculture is a risky endeavor. Farmers not only face natural threats from pests, plant disease, and inclement weather, but many must also worry about fluctuating input costs, uncertain prices for their output, and, ultimately, their ability to repay debts and support their families. The growing incidence of extreme weather events and the rising volatility of agricultural commodity prices has greatly exacerbated the vulnerability of farmers since the turn of the century. This is especially the case for poor farmers in the global South who lack the assets and state protections that help to insulate their more fortunate counterparts.

Location in HSS Commons repository

Please see 'Notes' below for any suggested/official citation information added by the author(s) of this work. Otherwise, you can cite the HSS Commons instance of this publication as follows:

Tags

Notes

Original publication: Isakson, S. Ryan. "FFS - Small farmer vulnerability and climate risk: Index insurance as a financial fix." Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l'alimentation, vol. 2, no. 2, 2015, pp. 267-277. DOI: 10.15353/cfs-rcea.v2i2.109. This material has been re-published in an unmodified form on the Canadian HSS Commons with the permission of Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l'alimentation. Copyright © the author(s). Work published in CFS/RCÉA prior to and including Vol. 8, No. 3 (2021) is licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY license. Work published in Vol. 8, No. 4 (2021) and after is licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY-SA license. For details, see creativecommons.org/licenses/.

Publication preview