Abstract:
udy assesses willingness of agricultural marketing co-operative societies to accept crop
insurance in Kilimanjaro region, Tanzania using descriptive and binary regression analysis
method. The study specifically intended to determine the characteristics of coffee AMCOs'
willingness to accept crop insurance as a measure to reduce losses, and socio-economic factors
affecting willingness of coffee AMCOs to accept crop insurance in the study area. A crosssectional research design was employed whereby 1 10 Agricultural Marketing Co-operative
Societies were sampled using simple random sampling. Data were collected using survey
method, interviews, and documentary review. The findings showed that characteristics of the
AMCOs average deposits were TZS 69 808 256; average savings were TZS 25 325 406; shares
were TZS 24 422 938, and average crop collection was 56 599 kgs in the study area. Therefore,
it is concluded that, AMCOs are characterized by low savings, and low shares that reduce their
financial power to invest money in other businesses or services. Moreover, the study establishes
that 87.3% of AMCOs are willing to accept crop insurance while 12.7% of them are not willing
to do so. It is concluded that AMCOs are characterized by low savings, and low shares that reduce
their financial power to invest money in other businesses or services. It is suggested that AMCOs
tertiary cooperative structures such as the Tanzania Federation of Co-operatives should initiate
crop insurance schemes in order to reduce risks and losses which AMCOs have been encountered.
