Weather derivatives in agriculture

Agriculture is one of the most weather sensitive sectors. The thesis aims to assess the efficiency of agricultural weather derivatives to reduce revenue risk in agriculture taking into consideration the growing conditions in the Czech Republic. The problem of risk management scheme in the Czech agriculture is that systemic weather risks are not covered by insurance (drought). In these cases, farmers have to rely either on their own financial reserves or ad hoc state assistance. Various combinations of weather variables, crops, regions and weather stations have been examined to design index-based weather contracts for most important crops produced in the Czech Republic. The first part of the thesis is devoted to literature review concerning risk management in agriculture. Overview of data sources is followed by assessment of risk environment of agricultural enterprises in the Czech Republic. Then, author describes the choice of crops and regions suitable for weather derivative design. The main part is devoted to method of design and valuation of weather derivatives at the regional level (burn analysis, parametric bootstrap). Finally, discussion on main findings, chances and limitations of agricultural weather derivatives is considered. The research shows the need to better differentiate public risk management support in agriculture in the Czech Republic. Regarding the efficiency of weather derivatives, it is possible to conclude that spatial (geographical) and production basis risk significantly reduce the efficiency of weather derivatives in agricultural practice.