Performance comparison of private agricultural insurance agents and production cooperatives using CSM & Seraqual techniques: the case of Shiraz County

Among different supportive policies of agricultural sector, crop insurance as a useful solution has always been emphasized. Moreover, it is necessary to attract private sector to involve agricultural insurance industry. Agricultural insurance fund of Iran actually began its work in September 1984. From 1996, some parts of its activities have been transferred to production cooperatives (PC) and continuing this policy, some parts of its activities have also been transferred to private agricultural insurance (PAI) agents in second half of 2002. To ensure effective and efficient services of these two agents (PC and PAI) in the field of agricultural insurance, it is necessary to evaluate their performance and to learn more about their strengths and weaknesses. Thus, the aim of this study was to compare the performance of PC and PAI. Survey research method was used in this study. Validity of the research tool (questionnaire) was confirmed using face validity procedure. Also, Cronbach's alpha was used to calculate its reliability that obtained from 0.64 to 0.80 for the different parts of the questionnaire. CSM and Seaqual techniques were used to calculate PC and PAI performances. The results of both techniques indicated that PCs have a better performance in terms of social and economic aspects, while PAIs are better in management, general and "law and procedures" aspects. Also, calculating total performance revealed that PAIs have a better performance and farmers have been more satisfied with them.