Risk management: How farms and food systems manage climate, price, and production risks through insurance, diversification, storage, contracts, and public policy

Agricultural production faces risks and uncertainties, including climate change and variability, pest and disease outbreaks, volatile output and input prices, and unpredictable policy or trade shocks. These threats jeopardize farm and off-farm incomes and food security. As climate risks intensify, the intensity, frequency, and severity of extreme climate events, as well as the volatility of commodity markets and prices, increase. How farms, farmers, food systems, and other agents manage these risks has become a central topic in agricultural economics and rural development research. Determining whether risk management strategies are ex-ante or ex-post requires significant research attention. This is the main motivation for this Special Collection in Frontiers in Environmental Economics. Despite years of research and policy engagement, the risk management strategies adopted by farmers and communities in developing countries are understudied and poorly understood. Several risk management strategies or instruments are studied in isolation, and not as an integrated portfolio. Low uptake of policies such as insurance remains a serious concern in agricultural risk management. A disconnect also exists between farm-level and system-level resilience to agricultural risks. This Special Collection will therefore publish empirical evidence and reviews from all parts of the world to document comprehensive and integrated approaches to agricultural risk management.Agricultural insurance and weather-based index insurance. Diversification strategies. Processing, distribution and marketing risks. Agrologistics. Value chain risk sharing mechanisms. Farm-level and system-level resilience. Governance quality. Adoption and effectiveness of risk management strategies. Gender and risk exposure and management. Climate risks and adaptation. Topic editors: Robert Ugochukwu Onyeneke, Niraj Prakash Joshi Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/84654/risk-management-how-farms-and-food-systems-manage-climate-price-and-production-risks-through-insurance-diversification-storage-contracts-and-public-policy