Effective factors on decrease amount in economic risk of dairy cattle farms in Gorgan county

Background and Objectives: Livestock industry is one of the activities that plays a major role in creating employment and ensuring food security of the society. Activity in the agricultural sector is risky due to instability. Insurance is very important as one of the methods of risk management in animal husbandry, in fact, risk management is a dynamic and active method that responds to risks and includes two parts of risk reduction and control. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of agricultural insurance on the reduction of economic risk in the cattle farms of Gorgan and to determine the effective factors on the reduction of production of the said units.
Materials and methods: The information needed in this study was collected by completing 75 questionnaires in the dairy cattle breeding units of Gorgan County. Then the logit model was used to determine the effect of various socio-economic factors. In order to analyze the collected information, Shazam software was used.
Findings: The results of the research showed that the variables of inoculation cost and awareness of the benefit of insurance were significant at the level of 1%, the variables of livestock ownership, use of a veterinarian, insurance history and livestock value at the level of 5%, and the variables of unit insurance and risk at the level of 10%. The results of the statistical value of likelihood-ratio (LR) is equal to 70.73. Therefore, according to the value of the probability value (P-value) presented, the entire regression model is statistically significant at the one percent level.
Conclusion: The findings of this study revealed that various factors such as access to veterinary services, insemination costs, prior insurance experience, and the act of insuring livestock units play a significant role in reducing economic risk in cattle farms in Gorgan. Based on these results, several key policy recommendations are proposed to improve the current situation: Enhancing education and awareness among livestock farmers regarding the benefits of insurance is crucial. Given the decisive role of awareness in insurance adoption, it is recommended that targeted and continuous extension programs be implemented at the village and farm levels. Improving insurance infrastructure with a focus on trust-building is essential. Considering the dissatisfaction of some farmers with the performance of insurance providers (e.g., delays in compensation or inaccurate assessments), it is advised that insurance companies and relevant institutions increase transparency and improve customer satisfaction metrics. Promoting private and small-scale ownership in livestock farming is recommended. As risk tends to be higher in large-scale or partnership-owned farms, supporting private farms with optimal capacity may help reduce risk and increase the willingness to purchase insurance. Encouraging the participation of educated farmers in livestock production is important. Since individuals with higher education levels are more inclined to adopt modern technologies and insurance services, financial and educational incentives should be provided to attract this group to the livestock sector. Establishing complementary livestock insurance support funds could be beneficial. Given that compensation from current insurance schemes may be inadequate in some cases, creating complementary support funds to assist vulnerable farmers could enhance resilience. Implementing these strategies, based on the data obtained from this study, can contribute to reducing economic risk and improving the sustainability of livestock operations in the region.