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Paper short abstract

This study investigates the determinants of weather index-based insurance adoption among crop farmers in Ghana. It identifies key factors such as climate perceptions, climate shocks and perceived risk influencing farmers' willingness to participate in insurance programs.

Paper long abstract

In Sub-Saharan Africa, agricultural insurance is crucial for mitigating the climatic risks faced by farmers, yet adoption rates remain low in Ghana. This research investigates the influence of Ghanaian farmers’ perceptions of climate change and their direct experiences with climate shocks on their willingness to purchase weather index-based insurance (WII), utilising the Value-Belief-Norm (VBN) theory as an analytical framework. Drawing on survey data from 337 farmers across key agroecological zones, the research employs a Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) approach to examine how underlying value orientations, climate change beliefs, and perceived personal norms shape insurance adoption behaviour. The findings reveal that climate perceptions has an insignificant relationship with farmers' willingness to purchase WII. However, farmers' experience with climate shocks has a positive and significant relationship with their willingness to purchase WII. Again, perceived risk plays a significant mediating role between climate shocks and WII. This mediating effect demonstrates that risk perception is a critical psychological mechanism through which climate change experiences and beliefs are internalised into insurance purchase decisions. These insights underscore the importance of integrating value-driven communication and trust-building strategies into insurance outreach programs. The paper concludes by recommending policy interventions that align insurance products with farmers’ values and beliefs, thereby fostering greater uptake of WII as a climate resilience strategy in Ghana’s agricultural sector.