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With research staff from more than 60 countries, and offices across the globe, IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

researcher spotlight

Elodie Becquey

Elodie Becquey is a Senior Research Fellow in the Nutrition, Diets, and Health Unit, based in IFPRI’s West and Central Africa office in Senegal. She has over 15 years of research experience in diet, nutrition, and food security in Africa, including countries such as Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, and Tanzania.

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IFPRI currently has more than 600 employees working in over 80 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.

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TOPIC

Risk and Insurance

Farming can be a risky endeavor. While farmers in developed countries have access to a range of financial instruments—including credit and insurance—to manage agricultural risks, many farmers in developing countries, and especially women and other marginalized groups, cannot fall back on these safety nets. For them, risk is one of the main barriers to expanding investments in agriculture.

IFPRI’s research aims to improve the availability, affordability, and quality of financial instruments designed to reduce the risk of agricultural investments, such as agricultural insurance, risk-contingent credit, or mobile banking systems that improve the functioning of informal insurance. This includes improving product design through use of digital technologies, bundling with risk-reducing agricultural technologies and practices and agro-advisories, and conducting rigorous impact evaluations of the cost-effectiveness of these innovations in enhancing resilience. A major focus of this research is on assessing how to make these financial instruments more gender responsive.

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This research, implemented together with partners, has led to the emergence of innovative products tailored to the local needs of both farmers and bankers and insurers, such as picture-based crop insurance and remote-sensing enabled risk-contingent credit.IFPRI’s research on risk and insurance is closely aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 1, SDG 2, and SDG 10, and the CGIAR Impact Areas on Poverty Reduction, Livelihoods, and Jobs and Gender Equality, Youth, and Social Inclusion.

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topics

Publications

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Working Paper

Climate risks and agricultural changes in conflict-affected Myanmar

2025Minten, Bart; van Asselt, Joanna; Aung, Zin Wai; Goeb, Joseph
Details

Climate risks and agricultural changes in conflict-affected Myanmar

Climate change and conflict are increasingly shaping livelihoods in Myanmar, with agricultural households among the most directly affected. Yet, empirical evidence on how these stressors affect farmers’ adaptation strategies and agricultural assets remains limited. We draw on unique largescale primary surveys: Over a three-year period, we conducted bi-annual surveys with nearly 5,000 farmers, collecting data on exposure to conflict, natural risks, climate change perceptions, agricultural adaptation, and agricultural land valuation.

Year published

2025

Authors

Minten, Bart; van Asselt, Joanna; Aung, Zin Wai; Goeb, Joseph

Citation

Minten, Bart; van Asselt, Joanna; Aung, Zin Wai; and Goeb, Joseph. 2025. Climate risks and agricultural changes in conflict-affected Myanmar. Myanmar SSP Working Paper 72. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/178197

Country/Region

Myanmar

Keywords

Asia; South-eastern Asia; Climate Change; Risk; Conflicts; Climate-smart Agriculture; Agriculture

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Persistence of individual and social preferences in rural settings

2025Castillo, José Gabriel; Hernandez, Manuel A.
Details

Persistence of individual and social preferences in rural settings

Preferences play a key role in decision-making and are generally assumed as time-invariant in economic modeling despite the mixed empirical evidence. We examine the stability of individual and social preferences in rural settings using the COVID-19 pandemic as a major global shock. We employ a unique longitudinal dataset comprising 1,262 smallholder households, based on interviews with household heads conducted across four survey waves between 2019 and 2022. We find a temporal, two-year shift in risk tolerance, while interpersonal trust and generosity perceptions show a sustained deterioration over three years. We explore possible variations by household characteristics and the degree of exposure to the virus, self-confinement, and extreme weather events.

Year published

2025

Authors

Castillo, José Gabriel; Hernandez, Manuel A.

Citation

Castillo, José Gabriel; and Hernandez, Manuel A. 2025. Persistence of individual and social preferences in rural settings. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2345. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/175452

Country/Region

Guatemala

Keywords

Americas; Central America; Covid-19; Decision Making; Extreme Weather Events; Risk; Rural Areas; Stability

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Book Chapter

Agricultural insurance: Policies and programs for reducing farmer risk

2025Ceballos, Francisco; Hazell, Peter B. R.; Hill, Ruth Vargas; Kramer, Berber
Details

Agricultural insurance: Policies and programs for reducing farmer risk

Farm households face many market and production risks to their livelihoods, food security, and economic well-being. Agricultural insurance is intended to help protect households from risk, but many agricultural risks are difficult to insure against and demand for insurance products remains low. This chapter examines how policy-oriented research has encouraged public investment, facilitated farmer use, and improved farmer welfare, and explores how new technologies and approaches are creating opportunities for increasing coverage. Book link: https://hdl.handle.net/10568/174108

Year published

2025

Authors

Ceballos, Francisco; Hazell, Peter B. R.; Hill, Ruth Vargas; Kramer, Berber

Citation

Ceballos, Francisco; Hazell, Peter B. R.; Hill, Ruth Vargas; and Kramer, Berber. 2025. Agricultural insurance: Policies and programs for reducing farmer risk. In Global food policy report 2025: Food policy: Lessons and priorities for a changing world, eds. Johan Swinnen and Christopher Barrett. Part Three: Supporting Farmers, Chapter 10, Pp. 245-264. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/174303

Keywords

Insurance; Agricultural Insurance; Risk Reduction; Farmers; Economic Policies; Crop Insurance; Weather Index Insurance; Artificial Intelligence; Machine Learning

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Book Chapter

Blogs

IFPRI and causal impact evaluation: Evidence for real-life policies
IFPRI Blog
 | 
September 25, 2025

IFPRI and causal impact evaluation: Evidence for real-life policies

By Alan de Brauw

A new report outlines diverse applications.

Agrifood value chain finance can expand opportunities for smallholders
IFPRI Blog
 | 
July 14, 2025

Agrifood value chain finance can expand opportunities for smallholders

By Alan de Brauw and Johan Swinnen

Building relationships between farmers, buyers, and lenders.

Financing healthy, equitable, and sustainable food systems: Laying out options for action
IFPRI Blog
 | 
June 30, 2025

Financing healthy, equitable, and sustainable food systems: Laying out options for action

By Eugenio Diaz-Bonilla, Geeta Sethi, and Johan Swinnen

A new blog series.

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Events

Innovations in agricultural insurance: Lessons learnt about managing smallholder farmer risks
IFPRI Program/Country Event

 | 

October 26, 2021, 11:00 – 12:00 pm

Innovations in agricultural insurance: Lessons learnt about managing smallholder farmer risks

Virtual Event: OCT 26, 2021 – 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM EDT. This webinar will present an evaluation of how action oriented research on tools for improving smallholder farmers have spawned further interest by different sector actors. 

Challenges and Opportunities for Latin American Agriculture
IFPRI at External Event

 | 

October 10 to 11, 2019

Challenges and Opportunities for Latin American Agriculture

IFPRI is participating in an international seminar on Challenges and Opportunities for Agriculture in Latin America, which will be held on October 10th and 11th, 2019 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This international seminar will discuss the difficulties and prospects for agriculture in Latin America, a region that currently accounts for a quarter of total exports […]

The 5th Global Science Conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture 2019
IFPRI at External Event

 | 

October 8 to 10, 2019

The 5th Global Science Conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture 2019

IFPRI is participating in the 5th Global Science Conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA), which will be held from October 8-10, 2019. Since the term climate-smart agriculture (CSA) was coined in 2010, the biannual global science conferences on CSA have emerged as the key global forum for scientific exchange to underpin CSA implementation.  The conference will […]

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News

November 11, 2025 | In the News

Smartphones, women’s rights and coupons: new trends that can boost insurance for African farmers (The Conversation)

IFPRI’s Berber Kramer and Ruth Hill discuss how new, innovative forms of insurance could help insure farmers against weather shocks, and how South Africa’s G20 presidency can support these initiatives.

February 02, 2023 | In the News

A digital push for agri but with less funds (Live Mint) 

A new digital infrastructure for farmers and an accelerator fund to encourage startups were among the major announcements in India’s latest budget, writes Live Mint in a story. The digital public infrastructure for agriculture will be built as an open-source public good that will enable farmer-centric solutions. The proposed digital agri-stack will aid farmers with […]

November 20, 2022 | In the News

Policy paper on agricultural insurance on works (Kenya News Agency) 

Kenya News Agency reports on the recent workshop on innovation in Agricultural Risk Management in Kenya, quoting Peter Owoko, the Director of Agriculture Policy Research and Regulations at the Ministry of Agriculture, who underscored the need for innovations in product development and distribution. In the last three years, several Kenyan and international organizations have been […]

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Our experts

David Spielman

David Spielman

Director, Innovation Policy and Scaling (IPS), Innovation
Policy and Scaling

Francisco Ceballos

Francisco Ceballos

Research Fellow, Markets,
Trade, and Institutions, Latin America and the Caribbean

Berber Kramer

Berber Kramer

Senior Research Fellow, Markets,
Trade, and Institutions

Liangzhi You

Liangzhi You

Senior Research Fellow, Foresight
and Policy Modeling