Micro-insurance can be an effective approach to smoothening income in adverse times and potentially a way to contribute to the financial inclusion of vulnerable populations. However, direct sales to individual smallholders remains a challenging task without an easily scalable solution. The current research seeks to find the determinants of adoption of a stand-alone coffee index-based insurance product in Uganda marketed by a farmer cooperative, and elicited preferences for improving the design and delivery model. A stratified household survey was conducted among 614 farmers, of which 40% adopted insurance and 62% were member of a farmer cooperative. In odds ratio terms, adopters perceived themselves to be 3.09 times more likely to receive a pay-out than non-adopters (P<0.01), and those having better access to extension services were 2.47 times more likely to adopt a policy (P<0.01). Yet farmers perceiving the design as complex were approximately half as likely to adopt (P<0.05). Farmers preferred the option of premium payments proceeds on delivery, mobile premium payments and delivering insurance through cooperatives/associations. Deepening insurance uptake among coffee farmers will therefore require a strong focus on communication and information sharing facilitated by cooperatives/associations (e.g. farmer cooperates, village and saving associations, or women’s associations).

Given the increased attention to risk management in the European Union’s (EU) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), it is important to monitor and evaluate the rates of adoption by farmers and their determinants over time. Current European agricultural statistics (Farm Accountancy Data Network) capture few indicators that assess such strategies, but complementing data collected during the EU Framework 7 project FLINT have allowed the adoption of risk management strategies and the determinants of farmers’ preference for complementary or substitute instruments to be assessed. Adoption rates of risk management instruments such as insurance contracts, price contracts, off-farm income, other types risk of reduction measures and other gainful activities vary signifi cantly across EU Member States and farming types. Econometric analysis indicates that larger farms more often adopt crop insurance, occupational accident insurance, price contracts and diversifi cation but are less likely to adopt credit avoidance and off-farm employment (at a signifi cance level of 1 per cent). For policy analyses these indicators are a step forward for the determination of the net impacts and establishment of counterfactuals in the long term (i.e. time series encompassing also adverse years) for measuring the impact of the CAP at farm level.

Innovation and adoption of innovation are considered key indicators of competitiveness and sustainability. Analysing data from 821 farms from eight Member States of the European Union in the frame of the EU Framework 7 project FLINT, this study provides an insight into the different adoption rates of five types of innovation in agriculture across Europe and suggests the potential effects of different factors, including farm type and farm size, subsidies and age, on farmers’ decision to innovate.