Factors Influencing the Policyholders’ Satisfaction with the Performance of Insurance Fund in the Field of Agricultural Products: the Case Study of Wheat Growers in Ilam

Abstract

Since insuring agricultural products is one of the effective instruments for risk management in agricultural sector, it can reduce risk avoidance among farmers and increase their competence in using production factors and, consequently, increases their inclination towards investment in agricultural sectors. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the factors influencing policyholders' satisfaction with the performance of insurance funds in the field of agricultural products. Statistical population consisted of all farmers (wheat growers) living in Ilam Province who had insured their products in 2014. The population for this search was policyholders of agricultural insurance fund in Ilam township that amounted to 250 out of which 158 ones were sampled by Morgan's sampling table and simple random method of sampling. A questionnaire was utilized as a data collection instrument. The reliability and validity of this instrument was verified by the judgments of the experts of Islamic Azad University of Ilam and Cronbach alpha coefficients (estimated to be 0.80). The data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS_win19 Software Package. It was found out that 68% of variations in policyholders' satisfaction with the performance of insurance fund in the field of agricultural products were influenced by variables such as orientations towards insuring products, the performance of insurance fund, providing services and facilities by the insurance fund, and the promptness and skill of insurance fund employees.