A research on the structural features and socio-economic status of nomadic sheep farming in Diyarbakır province

The research group of this thesis research consisted of 80 nomadic breeders engaged in nomadic livestock in the province of Diyarbakir. In the research, the places where the nomadic families stayed as winter quarters were visited, their lifestyles were observed, livestock activities were observed and surveys were made in the enterprises. Questionnaires were administered by face-to-face interviews with the participants. In the study, the mean and standard errors regarding flock status were 560±12.73 for sheep; 36±0.77 for ram, 140±2.96 for female; 90±3.06 for male and 182±4.48 for lamb. The responses regarding twinning rate (%), two lambings per year (%), daily milk yield (l), lactation milk yield (l), and lamb market weight (kg) were 3.48±0.43, 1.74±0.24, 1.36±0.06, 210.38±11.02 and 39.86±0.82 kg respectively. In the research, half of the participants did not hire shepherds, they benefited from the family workforce, they used the province of Diyarbakir for winter quarters, they moved north from May-June at the beginning of summer, they returned to the South from November, the places to migrate were determined and rented, they stated that they needed to relocate according to the pasture situation, they mostly did not own a land, they were excluded from the places they went to, they were not accepted, they faced great obstacles in the use of pastures, and the current pasture practices did not cover them. In addition, reasons such as lack of grazing area, habit and temperature, expensive feed prices, not knowing how to do other work, unemployment, drought, being the only source of income, drought were stated among the reasons for this production branch. In the research, the problems experienced due to migration are generally divided into market, education, transportation, health, electricity and access to drinking water. In particular, they stated that they do not have a form of marketing, they have a market network consisting of dairy farmers and livestock buyers, and they cannot evaluate their animal products at value price. As a result, the nomads, who use the Southeastern Anatolia Region as winter quarters, are confronted with more and more problems while carrying out their livestock activities, the existing production systems are ignored, and the nomads are forced into settled life.