Green Insurance for Pesticide Reduction: Acceptability and Impact for French Viticulture

Green insurance is an innovative tool to help producers manage (perceived) risks of transitioning to more environmentally-friendly crop management strategies. It is is not yet part of the agricultural policy toolbox nor is it marketed privately on a large scale. We here investigated the best design, uptake determinants and potential pesticide reduction from green insurance for a decision support system (DSS) for pesticide reduction in grape-vine production. This is an important example, as pesticide use reduction is high on the agricultural policy agenda and grape-vine production is a major contributor to global pesticide use. For our analysis, we conducted a Discrete Choice Experiment with 412 French vine growers. We find that 48% to 60% of growers are likely to subscribe to green insurance, with differences across contract types and prices. Producers transitioning to organic production are the most interested in the contract. All types of producers exhibit on average lower interest for group contracts and index-based insurance than for the traditional individual loss-based contract. Using data from field experiments on DSS performance in reducing fungicide use, we estimate that adopters could reduce their fungicide use by 45% on average. Our results suggest that green insurance could be a cost-effective tool to advance ambitious EU Green Deal pesticide policy goals, and more broadly, support the transformation to more environmentally-friendly farming practices.