Evaluation of Wheat Producers' Adoption for Protective Agriculture Techniques

Due to the deterioration of the natural balance on earth for various reasons, great changes have occurred in the world climate. Thus, agricultural products have been heavily affected by these changes. Drought arising from climate change not only affected the entire agricultural sector, but also affected wheat production and yield significantly. Therefore, drought reduces employment in the agricultural sector and increases migration. The traditional approach in wheat production negatively affects the sustainability of agriculture. If the depletion in groundwater resources continues, majority of the existing irrigated areas may not be irrigated in the future. Adopting and applying protective agricultural techniques by producers is of great importance to minimize the effects of drought. Determining to what extent manufacturers are aware of drought and climate change issues and which factors are effective in their awareness are among the priority issues in this study. In the study, it was aimed to determine the non-price factors affecting the wheat producers in Kadınhanı and Ilgın districts of Konya. The main material of the study is the data obtained from the face-to-face survey conducted with the wheat producers in these districts in 2018. In this context, whether the dependent variables affect irrigation, yield, income, area and producer demographic characteristics were analyzed with the help of the bivariate probit model. Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests were used for normality assumption and the existence of multiple linearity problem belonging to Ragnar Frisch was checked. In the applied model, it is concluded that as the area of operation increases, the producers' levels of applying protective agriculture techniques increase and as their income increases, their awareness of climate change decreases. Additionally, as the wheat yield increases, it is found that the producers' level of application of protective agriculture techniques and the possibility of being aware of the changes in the climate decrease.