Assessing the Acceptability and the Feasibility of an Agricultural Package of Technologies for Risk Management in Southern Haiti

Abstract

Haitian farming faces serious climate risks. Losses due to hurricanes, droughts, floods, and diseases seriously threaten productivity. This paper aimed to study the feasibility and acceptability of agricultural technology packages that could help manage risk while improving the productivity of farming in Haiti. Significant risks faced by farmers include uninsurable disasters due to their systemic and catastrophic nature. Therefore, a package of technologies including a paid-in-kind "stabilization account" component may be an appropriate financial tool for risk management. Are Haitian farmers open to such innovation? To answer this question, we collected data from 28 agricultural experts and 1,400 farmers, including 234 maize farmers in southern Haiti, and adopted the new product development (NPD) process to test the feasibility of the concept. We used the Spearman correlation, multinomial logistic regression, and linear regression to determine factors affecting the openness of Haitian farmers to innovation. We also conducted the Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel test to analyze the association between "financial inclusion" and "openness to innovation." Based on the results, 70 % of farmers expressed their willingness to pay 6 % to more than 12 % of their harvested crop as a stabilization account. Farmers with "financial inclusion" are expected to be twice as likely to adopt innovative technologies, while farm size, gender, household size, and revenue had a significant positive impact on openness to innovation. However, contrary to the trends found in literature, we found that risk aversion may positively affect the acceptance and adoption of some technologies. The results also suggest that, in Haitian farming, risks linked to natural disasters are more strongly related to financial incapacity than uncertainty. Therefore, access to proper just-in-time inputs complemented by a financial tool to overcome uncertainty will significantly boost the adaptability and resilience of Haitian farmers toward climate risks.