Analysis of the greenhouses in terms of structural properties in Finike-Demre-Kaş districts of Antalya province

The agricultural sector has great importance for the people living in a country to continue their vital activities. Sufficient and balanced nutrition of the population of the country will only be provided by regular agricultural production. In our country, careless and unconscious use of land and water resources, adverse conditions such as global warming and changing climatic conditions have led to a decrease in our soil and water resources and thus, agricultural production has been negatively affected significantly. Therefore, sufficient and regular nutrition of the increasing population can only be achieved by a controlled and conscious sustainable agriculture in agricultural production. In 365248 hectares of agricultural land of Antalya, 50667 hectares of open and greenhouse vegetable farming, 551 hectares of ornamental plants, 74787 hectares of fruit, and 184867 hectares of field crops are cultivated. The 28328 hectares (37%) of a total of 78960 hectares of greenhouse farming areas in Turkey is in Antalya. Although Antalya has the largest share in greenhouse production in the country, most of the existing greenhouse structures are structurally unstable and insufficient. In addition, Antalya is a city open to natural disasters due to its geographical location and climate. In recent years, strong winds, storms, hurricanes, heavy rain and hail rain cause great damage to greenhouses throughout the province. These climatic events that occur every year cause substantial product economic losses, especially in more especially in Kumluca, Finike Demre and Kaş districts located in the west of Antalya and where greenhouse cultivation activities are the most common. In this study, it is aimed to determine the problems of the greenhouses in the towns of Finike-Demre-Kaş in Antalya Province from technical and structural aspects and to develop appropriate solutions and methods for these problems. For this purpose, one-to-one surveys were applied to the business owners by going to the districts and observations and measurements were made in the existing greenhouses. As a result of the conducted surveys and observations and measurements, the size, technical and structural characteristics of the greenhouses in the districts, automation levels, state support, credit and grant utilization, agricultural insurance, and structural or production problems were determined. It was determined that more than half of the existing greenhouses (56%) are 10 years old and above and almost all of the greenhouses (98.4%) were built by the blacksmith. It has been determined that nearly half of the business owners (44%) have built their greenhouses with their own sources, most of them (56%) using loan grants and support. However, it has been determined that most of the greenhouses (70.4%) are not insured, very few (29.6%) of them have agricultural insurance and private insurance. It was determined that some of the greenhouses (4%) did not have foundation concrete, and more than half (60%) did not have sub-basement concrete. It was determined that most of the existing greenhouses (96%) did not have a shading pattern and again a large part (88.8%) had no insect net in the ventilation windows.