2019 ASHS Annual Conference

Producers’ decisions such as crop insurance, contract agreement, and technology adoption, involves considerable risk and uncertainty. Particularly, specialty crop production is more vulnerable to risk and requires more intensive management than commodity crop production, while risk mitigation tools are comparatively limited. We analyze risk preferences of US producers, and further compare the preference differences between commodity crop and specialty crop producers. We find certain farm characteristics and producer demographics have a significant impact on producer risk attitudes. Additionally, the relationships between risk behavior and individual characteristics vary between the two types of producers, which shed lights on agricultural policies and provides implications for the design of contract and insurance.