The Opinions and Expectations of the Farmers on Socio-Economic Impacts of Yortanlı Dam in Bergama District of Izmir Province

Year 2020, Volume: 34 Issue: 2, 118 - 123, 20.08.2020

Betül Susam Serez Sait Engindeniz

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine opinions and expectations of the farmers on socio-economic impacts of Yortanlı dam in Bergama district. For this purpose, nine settlements of Bergama district that will benefit from dam irrigation were included. In this research, data were collected from 87 farmers with proportional sampling and by the survey. In the analysis of the data, firstly the socio-economic characteristics of the farmers were examined. Then, the opinions and expectations of the farmers about the socio-economic impacts of the dam in various aspects were determined. Five-point Likert scale was used in this stage. According to the results of the research, 72.41% of the farmers stated that the dam had positive impacts on agricultural production. 34.48% of the farmers think that the dam increases agricultural income. 85.06% of the farmers believe that agricultural lands are used more effectively after the dam. On the other hand, 65.52% of the farmers think that the dam will not reduce the migration from the region. However, 51.72% of the farmes stated that the dam will affect the young farmers positively. As a result, with the development of irrigation opportunities with the dam, income level and employment opportunities in the region may increase. Therefore, the young population in the region should be encouraged to agricultural production and private sector investments should be encouraged for processing agricultural products.

Keywords

Agricultural irrigation, Land use, Rural development, Yortanlı dam