​Farmer’s Willingness-to-Pay for Animal Health and Livestock Insurance Services in Milking State of India: Empirical Findings from Rural Areas of Gujarat

This paper presents the results of a referendum-style contingent valuation survey conducted in one of the richest milking states of India. 200 households were surveyed to study the farmer’s preferences and choices for the health, breeding and insurance services. The objective of the survey was to assess the preference structure and the willingness of poor farmers to pay for veterinary health and insurance services. It is a comparative study between the existing situation and improved situation, that how the willingness to pay (WTP) will change if the quality of the health, breeding and insurance services will improve. The results show that farmers are willing to pay for assured access to veterinary services. Majority of the households value these services tremendously and are not looking for subsidies provided by the government institutions. It was noticed that farmer’s willingness to pay was much higher than the amount government institutions were presently charging for improved livestock support services, e.g. health and AI services. Though the coverage of Livestock insurance was low but it was found that farmers were ready to pay high amount of premium charges if the insurance services are easily available to the farmer’s door step with very less paper work and other formalities. Combining the findings of this survey with other closely related studies and the changing structure the input and output markets for livestock sector, the paper suggests specific policy measures to more effectively meet the expanding livestock services needs of poor livestock farmers.