Abstract
The objective of this research was to assess satisfaction levels of the insured farmers towards TARSİM agricultural insurance services. The study was conducted on the farmers engaged in apricot production in Malatya province of Turkey, the world’s largest provider of apricots. About 69.88% of Turkey’s dried apricot production and about 73.44% of the world dried apricot production are based in Malatya. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with a random sample of 187 farmers. Likert scale questionnaires were used to collect opinion data of farmers on five dimensions, namely sales and marketing, damage compensation, pricing and payment policy, customer notification and customer representation. Structural equation modeling was used to explore the association between the measured variables and overall satisfaction levels. The results of structural equation modeling indicated that all dimensions had statistically significant effects on farmer satisfaction. Additionally, according to the standard estimations, satisfaction from sales and marketing, satisfaction from customer notification and satisfaction from damage compensation were the most significant determinants of customer satisfaction. Pricing and payment policy had the lowest influence on farmer satisfaction. The study results showed that efficient and rapid resolution of farmer problems and grant of ease for premium payments were the most influential factors affecting farmer satisfaction.
Highlights
Global climate change and price fluctuations in food markets severely affect agricultural sector and increase risks and uncertainties
Previous studies on agricultural insurance were mostly focused on the identification of the factors affecting agricultural insurance purchase decisions by farmers
The findings of these research generally revealed the effects of farmer characteristics such as educational background, age, level of income, size of enterprise, land use pattern and the effects of enterprise characteristics on agricultural insurance purchase decisions by farmers (Gül Yavuz, 2011; Kumar et al, 2011; Tümer, 2011; Dragos & Codruta, 2014)
Summary
Global climate change and price fluctuations in food markets severely affect agricultural sector and increase risks and uncertainties. The world is facing the problem of decreasing stocks of natural resources, in particular arable land and water per capita. Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects that in the century, warming rates will increase in the Mediterranean Region which includes Turkey, rainfall will decrease by 20%, soil humidity will be reduced and sea levels will be rising. These changes are estimated to result losses and damages in agricultural lands and decrease in crop yields (Anonymous, 2007). Substantial fluctuations in apricot production led by natural disasters have negative impacts jas.ccsenet.org
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