The paper extends on the literature assessing China’s current “policy-oriented” agricultural insurance crop system to understand and to investigate the factors influencing the relative merits and potential demand for weather index crop insurance as a means for individual farmers in rural China to cope with weather-related production risks. Using the case of Huojia County in Henan Province, an empirical analysis is conducted of information collected from households’ survey and interviews with local village leaders. The key finding is that there is a significant potential demand for weather index crop insurance product as households seek time-efficient risk management strategies although this demand is influenced by generally poor awareness of insurance, small areas, and relatively low profitability of crop production.