Catastrophic bonds as a financial instrument for risk management – possibilities of utilization in the agricultural sector

The issue of risk management is important in agriculture because production variability of the results is dependent on several natural factors. Given the negative implications of the financial interventionism, associated with subsidizing agricultural business insurance, or „offering” disaster compensations (ad hoc), a deeper utilization of market or quasi-market risk management instruments, including catastrophic bonds (CAT) may be noted. This article assesses the potential utilization of CAT as instruments for risk management in agriculture, with a particular attention to the situation of the sector in Poland. The research objectives are as follows: (1) to discuss tasks of modern agricultural policy in the process of catastrophic risk management in agriculture, (2) to presence of mechanism of CAT, (3) to evaluate possibilities of utilization of CAT in agriculture in the light of the results of foreign empirical studies. Sustainable development of the agricultural sector is possible, among others, due to its link to financial infrastructure. Promoting risk management tools offered by the private sector or the form of public-private partnerships should be recommended. The underdevelopment of the financial infrastructure, offering innovative risk management instruments (including CAT) indicates the urgent need to introduce regulatory changes (including the area of good governance), to facilitate the introduction of new tools on free-market principles. Prudent utilization of innovative financial instruments should be regarded as a positive quality change. This forms an incentive for further structural changes in the Polish countryside. Through a deeper networking between research institutes operating for agriculture and its surroundings, as well as the entities constituting the infrastructure risk management in agriculture, the process of collecting and analyzing the data necessary for the pricing financial instruments related to, catastrophic risk management in agriculture (including CAT) would be possibl