Knowledge level of vegetable growing farmers on organic production in Diyarbakır province
Abstract
As was the case in the World, intensive input use was seen the only remedy to increase agricultural productivity so that to meet the needs for food and raw material in the second half of the last century in Turkey. Accordingly, chemical fertilizer and pesticide use were supported and encouraged. Unconscious chemical use increased the plant production but resulted in poor quality products and human health disorders. As a result of foodborn and environmental health problems, a new type of agricultural production was urged and encouraged by the conscious customers all over the World. This is called organic or ecologic farming which aims to restore the unwanted outcomes of intensive or conventional agriculture and produce healthy food to satisfy customer demands. In achieving the goals of organic production and increasing organic food production it is of great importance to unveil the knowledge level, problems and requests of the producers since culture, customs, social environment and the knowledge accumulated over years shape the agricultural production. In this study, it is aimed to reveal the knowledge level and production customs of the organic vegetable producers in Diyarbakır province. Study data was collected from the vegetable growing farmers with structured questionnaires through face to face interviews. Sample size was determined using simple randomized sampling method. In analysis of the data descriptive statistics method and Chi-Square test was employed. Study results revealed that about 61% of the respondents did not have their soils tested. It was also determined that of all respondents 81% act according to their own knowledge when covering the plant nutrient requirements of the soils as 7,5% consult their friends or neighbours and only about 2% followed the recommendations of agricultural experts. The most striking result, on the other hand, was that only about 27% of the respondents accepted that they had adequate knowledge on organic farming while the rest not.
Keywords
Organic agriculture,sources of information,vegetable growing,level of knowledge and consciousness
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