Overview

The Ohio State University and the African Center for Economic Transformation, in collaboration with the University of Ghana, propose to undertake a three-year program of research, outreach, and education designed to promote the adoption of improved production practices among Ghanaian smallholders. OSU/ACET is committed to rigorously testing through randomized control trails and other relevant methods the hypotheses that coupling index insurance with production loans that require any indemnity payment to be first applied to outstanding loans will reduce the impact of widespread agricultural loan defaults on lenders during adverse systemic natural events, thereby allowing lenders to expand access to credit among smallholders and reduce the interest rates they charge on agricultural production loans. OSU/ACET will use as its laboratory the index insurance initiatives being introduced by the Ghana Agricultural Insurance Programme (GAIP), an organization of 19 Ghanaian insurance companies whose primary mission is to assist members in creating, designing, rating and implementing crop insurance products in Ghana. OSU/ACET will build capacity in Ghana through extensive outreach aimed at agricultural insurers, agricultural lenders, value chain participants, farmer groups, and agricultural policymakers and through educational initiatives involving the University of Ghana’s PhD program in Applied Agricultural Economics and Policy.