Good agricultural practices in hazelnut, example of Kocaali district of Sakarya province

Every year, with the increasing population and decreasing production area in the world, there are radical changes in the agricultural sector. It is aimed to provide sufficient products to supply the food needs of the world population. For this reason, more products are tried to be obtained from the unit area, which brings intense use of chemicals in agricultural lands. With the use of chemicals, chemical impurities occur in the groundwater, for example, nitrate accumulation, and bring along the water problem. At the same time, pesticide residue problem threatens human health in products obtained from uncontrolled production models. The negativities in the field of production revealed the necessity of controlling the stages of agricultural production. With the gathering of big retailers in Europe especially in the vegetable and fruit market, a certification system has emerged under the name of Euro Retailer Produce Working Group Good Agriculture Practice (EUREPGAP). Moving to an international dimension with changing applications and improvements, EUREPGAP changed its name to GLOBALGAP in 2007 and has been undergoing certification process with this name. As a result of these requirements, a production model supported by certification, which was put into practice under the name of Good Agricultural Practices (ITU), has been implemented in our country. This study examines the ITU in hazelnut production in Turkey and effects applied in this area has been identified. In the study, it was aimed to determine the advantages of the producers producing hazelnuts in Kocaali District of Sakarya Province together with ITU and to determine the effects of ITU on hazelnut production. As a research area, a survey was conducted with 524 producers engaged in hazelnut production in Kocaali District. A total of 524 hazelnut producers were interviewed face-to-face, with 262 producers doing ITU and 262 producers without ITU. With the questionnaire questions, the demographic characteristics of the producers were determined, and questions were raised on the opinions of the producers about ITU (how they are aware of the applications, the problems they experienced, etc.) and the applicability of ITU, the difficulties, advantages and disadvantages of the producers. As a result, it has been determined that ITU has many positive effects on hazelnut production.