FACTORS AFFECTING FARMERS' TENDENCY ON USING CERTIFIED ORGANİC FERTİLİZERS AND THEIR WILLINGNESS-TO-PAY: A CASE STUDY ON MENDERES DISTRICT, IZMIR
Project no. 1018 · Status: Kapanmış · 2016
Summary
The main purpose of this study was to determine the factors that affect the tendency of farmers to use certified organic fertilizers. Other basic objectives of this study were to reveal the economic impact of certified organic fertilizer use on farms and to investigate the chemical fertilizer users’ willingness to pay (WTP) for certified organic fertilizers. Also, in this study, factors limiting and motivating the adaptation of farmers using chemical fertilizers to certified organic fertilizers were determined. The data of this study were obtained from the surveys conducted with 140 farmers in Menderes district of Izmir province. Of the 140 farmers surveyed, 50 were certified organic fertilizer users and 90 were non-users of certified organic fertilizers. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the factors that affect the decision or tendency of farmers to use certified organic fertilizers. According to the results of the analysis; farmers who were younger, had a smaller household size and obtained a significant part of their annual household income from agriculture were found to be more likely to use certified organic fertilizers. The farmers with higher knowledge of certified organic fertilizers had a higher tendency to use certified organic fertilizers. Besides, the farmers with a high perception of soil fertility, but low cost perception about organic fertilizers were found to have a higher tendency to use certified organic fertilizers. In the model, meaningful relationships were determined in terms of the type of production and the location of the villages where the farmers lived. Farmers who tended to use certified organic fertilizers were those who cultivate under both greenhouse and open-field conditions. In addition, it was determined that farmers living in mountain villages showed more tendency to use certified organic fertilizers. Partial budgeting analysis was used to analyze the economic impact of certified organic fertilizer use on farms. In the case of mandarin and cucumber production, the effect of this change on the farmers's income will be positive if the farmers use certified organic fertilizer-farm manure-inorganic fertilizer interactions instead of using only inorganic fertilizer. If the mandarin farmers make such changes in their fertilizing system, they will earn 2.428,73 TL profit per unit area (daa-1). On the other hand, cucumber farmers make a significant profit such as 4.291,73 TL daa-1. It is thought that this positive effect in income will be enough to motivate farmers to use certified organic fertilizers. In general, under different assumptions, it was seen that more than half of the farmers who used chemical fertilizers were willing to make additional payments to certified organic fertilizers. In order to both improve product quality and increase the amount of organic matter in soil and protect the environment, the rates that farmers could make additional payments per decare for certified organic fertilizers were generally concentrated between 1-5% and 6-10%. On the other hand, if farmers foresee that they will increase their income in the long term with the use of certified organic fertilizer, they want to pay more for certified organic fertilizer. In fact, in the assumption that income will be increased in the long term, 26.32% of the farmers stated that they were willing to make additional payments per decare in the range of 11-15% for certified organic fertilizer. In order to expand the use of organic fertilizers, including certified organic fertilizers, and to provide the use of these fertilizers by farmers, the economic impact of organic fertilizers should be better explained. Many farmers using chemical fertilizers do not favor using certified organic fertilizers without seeing their positive economic effects. f the economic effects of organic fertilizers are well explained to the farmers, the tendency of the farmers to use certified organic fertilizers will increase.