Evaluating Financial Performance of Agricultural Insurance Fund in Hamadan Province
Subject Areas : Agricultural Extension and Education Research
Keywords: Financial Performance, Agricultural Insurance, Farmer's attitude, Hamadan province,
Abstract :
Considering the importance of insurance in encouraging agricultural investments, this study try to evaluates the financial performance of agricultural insurance by using subjective and objective approaches in Hamadan province. The data collected by interviewing 381 farmers through two-stage cluster sampling and from the annual performance reports of Agricultural Insurance Fund (AIF) for 2003-2010. The results of objective assessment show that crop insurance coverage has many variations and the farmers have weak tendency for taking out the horticulture insurance. Analyzing the farmer's share of the premium paid for the different products show no clear pattern of the governmental funds for supporting farmers. Furthermore, on the indemnity payment, AIF is dependent on governmental subsides, on average pays 4 Rials indemnity per 1 Rials premium. Evaluation of the AIF's portfolio with respect to government's share of the premium shows the profitability of irrigated wheat, irrigated barely, canola, grapes, apricot and almond and no profitability of any crops with no government aids. On the other hand, the findings of subjective evaluation show that the insured and uninsured farmers respectively have positive and negative attitudes toward the financial performance of AIF.