Agricultural insurance in a transition economy

Availability and cost of credit are influenced by risk. Well-functioning ri sk sharing markets can improve availability of credit and reduce cost. One source of risk is from adverse weather that can greatly reduce crop yields. Thus, it is desirable to have effective multiple peril yield crop insuranc e. However, nearly all attempts by governments around the world to support crop insurance have failed, primarily due to several unique problems that a ccompany offering multiple peril crop insurance. This paper reviews those p roblems and offers an alternative that is largely free of the problems. The alternative holds promise for improving the availability of risk sharing m arkers.