Bernard Manganyi recently completed his Masters in Agricultural Economics at the University of Pretoria’s Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development and achieved a distinction for his dissertation. Manganyi chose to study Agricultural economics for many reasons. For one, it is a broad field that covers vast topics beyond agriculture. More specifically, finance and risk management, econometrics, and microeconomics, environmental and resource economics, environmental valuation, and policy to mention a few. He also believes that agriculture defines the future of the world, therefore, vibrant youth must be part of the sector to conduct research focused on advancing and developing innovative technologies to address climate change.

As part of his masters research, Manganyi conducted research on the preferences of subsistence livestock farmers for index-based pasture insurance in Limpopo Province, South Africa. This topic was influenced by growing interest in literature to find ways of adapting to climate change. 

The main objective of his research was to assess the preferences of subsistence livestock farmers for index-based pasture insurance (IBPI). A discrete choice experiment approach and other survey methods (incentivised lottery games and self-reported risk preferences based on a Likert scale) were used to elicit preferences for insurance contracts, farmers' risk tolerance, and loss aversion. The data collection covered 110 subsistence livestock farmers who were identified using a simple random sampling method. The results show that sampled subsistence livestock farmers have a positive attitude towards IBPI contracts that hedge against drought-related pasture degradation. The main recommendation for insurance providers is to consider the customisation of identified IBPI attributes when designing IBPI schemes to increase the likelihood of adoption by subsistence farmers.

Manganyi believes that this research is important because “the impact of climate change intensifies drought risk, severely threatening subsistence farmers in developing countries. To deal with the effect of drought, subsistence farmers rely heavily on traditional mitigation and coping mechanisms; however, they are proved inefficient in dealing with the complete impact of drought”. In this view, policymakers are increasingly interested in promoting Index-based Pasture Insurance (IBPI). Therefore, this study is crucial because it explores different perspectives regarding farmers’ willingness to uptake innovative technologies to protect their livestock against drought. In addition, Manganyi recommends that insurance schemes are designed by considering farmers’ preference and their attitudinal characteristics.

He presented his research, “Preferences for index-based pasture insurance: a choice experiment in Limpopo Province, South Africa” at the annual Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA) Conference in October 2022 in the Best Contributed Paper category where he came in third place. Manganyi describes his experience at the conference as a great learning experience, stating “I learnt a lot from other presenters, which will contribute a lot to my academic path. Moreover, I enjoyed networking with great researchers from different universities, organisations and government departments.”