A RESEARCH ON ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY OF BUFFALO MILK PRODUCTION: A CASE OF BALIKESIR PROVINCE
Project no. 324 · Status: Kapanmış · 2015
Summary
Buffalo farming in Turkey has become increasingly important in recent years. While the buffalo is in the group of cattle with milk and meat, the number of products obtained from buffalo farming is quite high. In terms of milk and dairy products, Afyon cream, lule cream (rulo), buffalo yogurt, ice cream, butter, cheese and especially mozzarella cheese are obtained from buffalo milk and in terms of meat, processed meat products such as sausage and pastrami are obtained from buffalo meat. Buffalo milk is much richer milk than cow's milk in terms of protein (%4.2), fat (%7.9), calcium (264mg/100gr), magnesium (307 mg/100gr) and vitamin C (6.7mg/100gr). Provinces where the most intense in the presence of buffalo in Turkey are Samsun, İstanbul, Diyarbakır, Muş, Bitlis, Afyon, Sivas and Kayseri. In the Aegean region, buffalo farming and buffalo milk production are mainly carried out in the provinces of Afyonkarahisar, Balıkesir and Kütahya. In this study, the province of Balıkesir, which is the second in the Aegean region in terms of buffalo milk production, was selected. The data used in the research is obtained through face to face survey from 102 producers in the town of Altıeylül and Gönen which the number of buffaloes is high and buffalo milk production is done intensively. In the study, by explaining of the current status of farms that breed buffalo, under what conditions they breed buffalo, profitability, producer prices and marketing channels, problems encountered in production and marketing and solutions for this problems were present. The technical efficiency of buffalo dairy farms was determined by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) with input-output oriented models. Only 17 dairy farms were found to be efficient The average efficiency score of the farms for the input oriented was found to be 58.51% in case of government buffalo support and 58.14% if there is not. In the output-oriented model, the gross production value should be increased by 37.04% in order to ensure the full efficiency in the buffalo dairy farms. The potential improvement values in the analysis for input-oriented model are quite similar to the output-oriented model. Potential improvement recommendations for output and inputs are reducing trend for all variables except production value. Keywords: Buffalo milk, economical analysis, efficiency, sustainability.