A case study on the societal problems of farmers in Erzurum

The aim of this study is to reveal the situation regarding the social problems of farmers in Erzurum with a qualitative approach. In this study, a case study was used as the research design. In the research approach, all available documents referring to problems in the field of farming were reviewed. In the implementation of the research, the patterns of meaning that farmers attribute to the problems in the field of farming and the factors that affect and determine these patterns were tried to be discovered in the natural environment of the farmers. In this study, 17 farmers from 8 districts in Erzurum were reached as the study group. Interviews with the farmers were conducted between October 5, 2022 and November 12, 2022. During the research, everything the farmers expressed and the way they expressed them were meticulously analyzed. As a result of the research, it was seen that the social dimension of the problems that are effective in the lives and professional endeavors of farmers exhibits a more complex and painful structure. Themes such as economic situation, cultural structure, social change and living conditions, labor force, traditions, deprivations, migration, adaptation to technical innovations, risks, precariousness, generational conflict, unfair competition came to the fore. The research was completed by interpreting the sociological reflections of these themes.