Risk sources and risk management strategies in greenhouse vegetable: A Case of mersi̇n province

Greenhouse cultivation has an important economic share in the agricultural sector in our country. Mersin region also makes a great contribution to greenhouse cultivation in terms of economy due to its favorable climate. This thesis aims to identify and analyze the risk perceptions and risk management strategies of the farmers engaged in greenhouse vegetable cultivation in Mersin province. There are 2,432 producers engaged in greenhouse vegetable cultivation in Mersin. Data set used in this study obtained from face to face survey which covered 75 randomly selected farmers in June and July of 2019 in Akdeniz, Erdemli and Silifke districts of Mersin. Factor analysis was used to reduce the risk sources inot the small number of variables. According to the results of the research, the most important risk source is the variability in pesticide and fertilizer prices, and the most important risk management strategy is taking precautions against diseases. The Cronbach Alpha value of the risk resources scale is 0.69 and the KMO sampling adequacy measure is 0.551. Risk management strategies consisting of 11 factors which explained 76.86% of the total variance. According to the results of the regression analysis, the regression models established for the independent variables and the risk sources considered as dependent variables, the lack of implementation, the natural conditions and the environmental factor were found to be significant at the 5% level. Determining risk sources and risk management strategies may be beneficial for farmers to make more efficient production by avoiding certain risks.