Communication between farmers and municipal goverment in agricultural development

Agricultural communication, a developing new field of social science in our country, ensures that messages are conveyed correctly in order to facilitate the reproduction of messages and reach some mass groups or the adoption of innovations in communication studies carried out in the field of agriculture. Agricultural communication based on social engineering formed by professional disciplines such as data collection, analysis, monitoring-evaluation, and using agricultural extension methodology has an important function in determining policies for the development of agriculture and therefore rural areas. Because agriculture is directly related to the sustainability of natural resources and provides food production, the concepts of sustainability and food safety, and the communication carried out in the axis of these concepts, are discussed throughout the thesis. This study aims to reveal the formation of a sustainable agricultural development system through the "Another Agriculture is Possible" model of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, with a focus on communication between farmers and the municipal government. The purpose of this qualitative research is to fill a gap in the academic literature on agricultural communication in our country by increasing knowledge about the level of communication and interaction between farmers and municipal governments. As a method in the study, a literature review was conducted, agricultural development policies and agricultural communication practices implemented by the local government were examined, and semi-structured interviews were conducted in order to evaluate the ideas and approaches of farmers to these practices. In this framework, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 farmers/agricultural development cooperative members who produce within the boundaries of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality. As a result of the findings obtained from the data, it was concluded that the communication activities carried out by the local governments with the farmers/farmer cooperatives have significant effects on agricultural development, but considering the deficiencies in the information and subsequent evaluations of these communication practices, professional support is needed in the communication process management.