'The Evaluator' Episode 10: What does it take to convince farmers to buy crop insurance for climate resilience?

Does crop insurance improve farmers’ livelihoods in the face of climate change? If so, what does it take to convince them to buy it?

In this episode, Dr. Nathanial Peterson, Vice President of Partnerships at the Busara Center for Behavioral Economics, explains how Busara helped an agricultural insuretech improve the sale of crop insurance through a mixed-incentive referral system. Dr. Peterson discusses how Busara leveraged social and economic mechanisms to drive particular segments of farmers to refer others, ultimately resulting in thousands becoming insured against climate shocks in Malawi, Zambia and Nigeria.

The Busara Center for Behavioral Economics is a behavioural science advisory and academic research lab that works to advance and apply behavioural science in the Global South.

Dr. Peterson is interested in how smallholder farmers understand risk, risk mitigation strategies and technologies. He specializes in building partnerships with agritech startups, funders and implementing NGOs. He has degrees in Agriculture and Natural Resource Economics, Psychology and a PhD in Behaviour Decision Research and Behavioural Economics.

This episode was produced by IEU’s Yeonji Kim and Iben Hjorth. You can subscribe to 'The Evaluator' on major podcast platforms including Anchor, Radio Public, Breaker, Spotify, and Google. 

Have questions or comments? Be sure to follow us on Twitter and tweet about the episode using the hashtag #TheEvaluator. You can also reach out to Dr. Nathanial Peterson and his colleagues @BusaraCenter.

This podcast is based on the IEU Virtual Talk: Using behavioural science to mitigate climate shocks - a case study, held in September, 2020. The views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Independent Evaluation Unit of the Green Climate Fund.