Index Insurance and Food Security Among Smallholder Farmers in Southern Mali

Abstract

Climate extremes increasingly threaten food security in low‐ and middle‐income countries, where vulnerable smallholder farmers often lack access to risk mitigation tools. Although index‐based insurance has been promoted as a promising adaptation measure to climate shocks, evidence on its welfare effects, especially on food security, remains limited. This study addresses this gap by evaluating the relationship between index insurance ownership and food security among approximately 1300 smallholder maize farmers in southern Mali. Using self‐assessed food security measures and applying a rich set of different regression models to mitigate endogeneity concerns, we find that owning an index insurance product statistically significantly improves food security. Our results suggest that this effect operates primarily through reduced ex‐post consumption adjustments. The findings are particularly relevant for policymakers and development practitioners exploring scalable and climate‐resilient financial instruments for food security.