Determination of factors affecting of producers' seed preferences in greenhouse vegetable growing; The case of Antalya province

In this study, it was aimed to determine the seed and seedling preferences of greenhouse vegetable producers and to determine the factors affecting seed or seedling preferences in Serik, Aksu, Kumluca and Gazipaşa districts of Antalya province. The main material of the research was consisted of the data collected by the survey method from 96 greenhouse farmers in Serik, Aksu, Kumluca and Gazipaşa districts of Antalya. The greenhouse farms in this study were divided into 3 groups as 0-3, 3.1-7.5, and 7.6 decare. According to the results of the research, it was found that the average greenhouse vegetable area was 7.36 decares, the average age of producers was 41.63 years and the experience of growing vegetables was 19.69 years. It was determined that the most common vegetables produced in the farms were tomatoes (54.16%), pepper (34.38%), cucumber (30.21%) and other vegetables (15.63%). The most important reason for preferring greenhouse vegetable growing were found as traditional production habits (78.13%) and suitability for land and climatic conditions (70.83%). While 85.45% of the producers stated that they needed information on farming and 14.58% of the producers did not. It was found that 79.17% of the producers received information needed from agricultural engineers / technicians and 70.83% from other farmers. 96.89% of the problems faced by producers in farming is high input prices, followed by diseases and pests followed by 58.33%. In addition, low prices of products with 87.50% are the leading problems faced by producers in the marketing of vegetables, followed by instable market structure with 62.50%. The greenhouse vegetable producers firstly have to decide on kind of vegetable plant to plant it and then the varieties of this kind. It was founded that 90.65% of the producers surveyed decides himself on the type of vegetables, followed by producers asking for other farmers with 33.33% and producers asking for seedlings with 20.83%. In addition, most of the producers (75.00%) were found to be satisfied with the type of seed they grow. Besides, 17.71% of the producers were not satisfied and 7.29% were very satisfied.