Иновације у управљању ризицима у пољопривреди | Innovation in agriculture risk management

The aim of the paper is to analyze the current level of development of agricultural insurance and the possibility of applying modern instruments in managing the business risk in the Serbian agricultural sector. Agriculture is one of the most risky sector of economy. In addition to the risks inherent to all sectors of the economy, agriculture is also exposed to the additional risks that arise, first of all, from the fact that agricultural production is performed outdoors. In addition to the pronounced production risk, which is reflected in the uncertainty of future yields and product quality due to unpredictable weather conditions, another significant type of risk is the market risk, which implies a high fluctuation in agricultural product prices. In order to successfully manage the risk of doing business in agriculture, it is necessary for farmers to have a sufficient level of knowledge in this field and, on the other hand, to have risk management instruments at their disposal. According to the research findings presented in this paper, modern risk management instruments are not available to Serbian farmers to the extent available to farmers in developed countries. Agricultural insurance is represented on a very small scale on 5-10% of insured areas, while modern insurance of complete yields and income is not available. Hedging strategies on commodity derivative markets are not available since commodity derivative markets have not been established in Serbia. The analysis presented in the paper shows that the improvement of the business risk management segment in the agricultural sector depends to a large extent on the state agrarian policy, which should establish the "infrastructure" necessary for the introduction of innovative risk management instruments, as well as on securing revenue and the market for standardized derivative contracts on agricultural products and weather conditions. The paper also proposes the introduction of partially compulsory agricultural insurance in Serbia, which would be conceived as a public private partnership and would apply to all beneficiaries of a state resource or incentive.