Investigation On The Behavior Of Farmers Participating In Agricultural Insurance In Zhoukou City

Stable development of agriculture cannot be achieved without agricultural insurance.In recent years,droughts,floods and pest and disease disasters have seriously threatened farming production,bird flu and animal diseases have had a serious impact on the farming industry,and market imbalances can lead to price fluctuations in agricultural products.In all stages of agricultural production and operation,agricultural insurance can hedge and diversify various agricultural risks to a certain extent,thus enhancing the ability of agriculture to withstand risks in order to reduce farmers’ economic losses and stabilise and improve their income levels.Since 2004,when agricultural insurance first appeared in the Central Government’s No.1 document,each year the Central Government’s No.1 document has put forward requirements and guidance on how to develop agricultural insurance,and local governments have implemented specific agricultural insurance development plans in accordance with the Central Government’s instructions.The No.1 document of the last three years clearly states that the scope of agricultural insurance implementation should be expanded to ensure the supply of food and important agricultural products.Combined with field research,the study of farmers’ participation behaviour plays an important role in the implementation and development of agricultural insurance.Zhoukou,as the top grain-producing city in Henan Province,launched its policy agricultural insurance in 2007.After 15 years of development,it has a large agricultural insurance market,but there is also the problem of low quality development and insufficient demand.Based on the current development situation of agricultural insurance in Zhoukou,this paper conducts fieldwork and research on farmers and agricultural insurance operators in Zhoukou from the demand and supply sides of agricultural insurance respectively.A total of 234 valid questionnaires and 2 interviews were collected to analyse the current situation and factors influencing the agricultural insurance participation behaviour of Zhoukou farmers in terms of farmers’ insurance awareness,farmers’ participation behaviour and business development of insurance operators,to explore the problems of agricultural insurance participation behaviour of Zhoukou farmers at the present stage,and to provide targeted countermeasures and suggestions to help the highquality development of agricultural insurance and better serve The study also provides suggestions for countermeasures to help the development of high-quality agricultural insurance and better serve the "three rural areas" and promote the rural revitalization strategy.This paper finds,through a questionnaire survey,that the problems of farmers’ agricultural insurance participation behavior in Zhoukou City include: farmers’ low level of awareness of agricultural insurance;farmers’ low satisfaction with agricultural insurance;farmers’ serious herd mentality in participating in insurance;farmers’ unmet needs for insurance;and information asymmetry leading to moral hazard and adverse selection.In response to these problems,the following countermeasures are proposed: strengthening publicity and raising insurance awareness;simplifying the procedure of insurance claims;improving the quality of insurance services;accelerating innovation of agricultural insurance products;and improving financial subsidy policies.The innovation of this paper lies in the research perspective and methodology.At present,most of the studies on farmers’ participation in agricultural insurance at home and abroad focus on the willingness to participate in insurance,but there are few studies on farmers’ participation behaviour.This paper takes farmers’ participation behaviour as the research object,visits rural areas in Zhoukou City,issues questionnaires and interview outlines,and adopts a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to analyse the current situation and problems,which is innovative.