Envisaging Indian farmers' desires from agricultural index insurance integrating rank sum weighting method and MoSCoW technique: an approach to requirements prioritization

Purpose - The goal of this study is to predict the farmers’ concerns about agricultural index-insurance (AII) for weather risk mitigation of horticultural crops in hilly regions. The key impetus of analysis is to prioritize the AII requirements based on the farmers’ perspectives using the requirements prioritization approach. Design/methodology/approach - The integrated approach has been applied in this paper. Initially, the MoSCoW prioritization technique has been employed to prioritize the AII attributes utilizing a four-dimensional agriculture insurance scale. Later, the rank sum weighting method was deployed to assign the ultimate rank to AII attributes based on the farmers’ responses. Findings - Findings specified that out of 15 AII attributes, majority of 11 attributes were placed in “must have” and “should have” categories that related to claim, design, premium and grievance management dimensions. However, three AII attributes are placed in the “could have” category. Additionally, findings of rank-sum weighting method-based ranking can help insurers in redesigning farmers-oriented AII services for risk mitigation of horticulture crops by incorporating these ranks as per their priority level. Research limitations/implications - The prioritized AII attributes are helpful for insurers and managers in order to solve the problems associated with design, premium, claim and grievance management of AII. Social implications - Findings deliver significant insights to insurers to incorporate the prioritized AII attributes ranked by farmers. Originality/value - This is the initial known analysis that integrated the MoSCoW and rank sum weighting method to prioritize the AII requirements prioritization among Indian farmers.