This study has two objectives: to characterize farmers according to their level of financial risk aversion and to analyze the factors explaining their propensity to take financial risk. Using a lottery system inspired by the work of Allais (1953) on 540 farmers in the groundnut basin of Senegal, the results show that 81.38 % of farmers are financially risk averse and only 8.57 % are risk lovers. Estimates with the probit model show that the propensity to take financial risk decreases if the farmer sets himself a high tolerable level of production loss. These results suggest that demand components should be considered in public agricultural financing and insurance policies.