Rural Household Vulnerability and Insurance Against Commodity Risks : Evidence from the United Republic of Tanzania

This report has two objectives. It assesses the nature and the extent of vulnerability among rural households in Tanzania with a particular focus on smallholder cash crop growers though exploring all risks, including the decline in commodity prices. It further explores the potential role for market based insurance schemes such as commodity price and weather based insurance to mitigate household vulnerability. The empirical analysis is based on two rounds of specifically designed representative surveys of farm households in Kilimanjaro and Ruvuma, two cash crop growing regions in the United Republic of Tanzania in 2003 and 2004. The contrasting experiences of a richer (Kilimanjaro) and a poorer (Ruvuma) region substantially enriches the policy guidance emerging from the report. The report applies descriptive, econometric and contingent valuation techniques to achieve its objectives.