Hedging crop risk with yield insurance futures and options

This paper analyses the optimal hedging decisions for risk-averse producers facing crop risk, assuming crop yield insurance futures and options are available. The first-best optimal hedge requires either a futures position or an option position proportional to the regression coefficient of individual yield on aggregate yield depending on whether the financial markets are unbiased or biased. Using yield data for a sample of wheat producers in France, the producers' hedge ratios are derived. The individual crop risk is shown usually to contain a large systemic component. These new hedging instruments are usually more effective to reduce farm yield variability than individual yield contracts.