Determining the farmers? willingness to pay for agricultural extension and consultation services: The case of Aydın province

The agricultural extension and consultation services carried out by the public institutions were revised by the Farm Bill numbered 5488. Therefore, private organizations have a chance to provide services for the extension activities through that revision. After the long time inefficient public based extension services, new opportunities came into existence. It appears that the government will withdraw from financing of such services and only undertake the policy issues. In the future, private extension services and farmers will face some difficulties in terms of financing the services. Based on these facts, farmers? attitudes about financing these services are quite essential. The main purpose of this study is to examine the attitudes of farmers and their willingness to pay for such services. For this purpose, a survey was conducted with 399 farmers chosen randomly, out of 12 districts. The contingent valuation method was used to determine farmers? willingness to pay amounts, while tobit and probit methods were used in analyzing the perceptions of farmers. The results indicate that farmers? willingness to pay amount is 6.59 TL/da for extension and consultation services. Based on the farmers? willingness to pay and agricultural land with 359.494 ha, it can be observed that government can create a financial source in the amount of 23.690.654 TL. That way the financial burden on government will decrease and new employment opportunities will be created. It was found that the farmers? willing to pay for large livestock unit is 29.33 TL per year. The results show that income, education, cosmopolite features of farmers and participation in organizations positively influence farmers? willingness to pay. Turkey is a country where the structure of the agricultural production varies. Thus, similar studies can be conducted in different part of Turkey in addition to the study carried out in Aydin province. Therefore, different pricing policies and agricultural policies can be formed based on the different agricultural and socio economic characteristics of the regions.Key words: Contingent Valuation, Willingness to pay, Agricultural Extension and Consultation Services, Aydin