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The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework for a comprehensive agricultural financial service to address the problems faced by the farmers and the insurance companies and to suggest the product delivery method to increase the acquisition rate of the product.

A theoretical framework is proposed based on the pros and cons of various insurance services floated out earlier as well as the various risks faced by the farmers. Subsequently, on the basis of the factors that affect the take up rate of insurance products, the paper proposes an adequate delivery strategy.

An efficient integrated framework for risk management in agriculture has been developed by interlinking various elements like price risk, yield risk and demand risk in addition to providing additional advisory and credit services. Other services only cover one or two of these and hence, are not adequate. Also, illiteracy of farmers is the main bottleneck that decreases the take up rate and can be addressed by appointing agro-financial agents.

The frameworks proposed if brought into practice will lead to a holistic agro-financial service and help in overall advancement of the agricultural sector and economy.

This paper would help insurance companies to come out with better insurance products for the agricultural community that will be easier to administer and economically more viable and thus fulfils the criteria for a holistic insurance framework.

The chapter draws on historical evidence from Central America to test two of the most influential theories of the development of democracy: (1) structural theories derived from the work of Barrington Moore and (2) theories of the “political economy of democratic transitions.” The Central American evidence confirms Moore's theory in regard to the anti-democratic role of landed elites, but not the democratic role of the bourgeoisie. Contrary to some structural theories, the industrial working class was also not important in the development of democracy in Central America. Nor does the Central American evidence fit the political economy of democratic transitions model of negotiated or imposed “transitions from above.” A new model, termed the route to democracy through socialist revolution from below is proposed to account for the Central American evidence and the implications of the model are explored for the development of democracy generally.

The study assesses the relationship between institutional credit access and farmer satisfaction using contextual mediating and moderating variables. This study identifies various socioeconomic, service features and service quality determinants impacting institutional credit access.

The authors used the stratified random sampling method and selected 512 farmers from 40 villages in Maharashtra, India. Initially, the study employed probit regression analysis to identify the credit adoption determinants. Subsequently, the relationship between institutional credit and farmer satisfaction is identified through moderated-mediation analysis using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences and Analysis of a Moment Structures (SPSS - AMOS model).

Probit model's results suggest that socioeconomic variables like education and bank distance; service quality variables like prompt service and employee behavior; and service characteristics variables like the interest rate, loan sanction time, repayment period, and documents for loan application significantly affect institutional credit adoption across the smallholders. Subsequently, the results of the moderating-mediation analysis show that working capital, perceived value and risk perception partially mediate the association between credit adoption and farmer satisfaction. The mediated effects are further moderated by farm advisory services and financial knowledge and skills.

The study is restricted in opportunity due to primary data, and it considers only farmers' perspectives to measure service quality and service features as constraints for institutional credit access.

The government, nongovernment organizations, civil societies and private institutions should provide sufficient financial knowledge and training to the farmers via extension services to utilize the borrowed capital effectively to bring economic welfare and mental satisfaction.

The existing literature rarely considered banking service quality and service features (demand side) variables as determinants of credit access. Further, the study brings novelty in examining how the capital management cognitive factors of the formal credit adopters influence the relationship between credit access and satisfaction.