Economic dimension of organic agriculture in Bartın province

Increase in the food demand with the rapid increase in the global population caused the agricultural crop producers to use various chemical in order to enhance productivity. Some techniques and practices preferred on the hand satisfied food requirement of people and on the other hand led various health problems. These negative effects initiated the search for alternative farming techniques as from the 1910's in many countries, especially England. It can be said that the idea of organic farming occurred as a result of this conjuncture. Significant studies have been conducted on organic farming in Turkey especially since the 80's as is the case in many countries. The purpose of this study is to set forth the economic aspect of organic farming in the province of Bartın. The data obtained from the R.T. Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock and Bartın Provincial Directorate of Food, Agriculture and Livestock formed the basis for the study. Moreover, the methods of literature review and face-to-face survey were used in the study. An interregional comparison was made for economic aspect of organic farming in Turkey. Thus, it was tried to suggest economic dimension of organic farming on the basis of both the region and the provinces in the region. Two different surveys were conducted to assess economic effects of organic farming in the province of Bartın. One of them was realized on 400 customers by sampling method in order to evaluate perspective of the consumers in Bartın on organic farming products. The other was conducted to 53 of total 60 farmers (88.33%) in order to establish satisfaction levels of the farmers dealing with organic farming. It was seen in the consumer survey that age and income level were statistically significant (p<0.05) for organic product consumption and other factors did not have an important effect. Analysis results of the survey on the farmers indicated that sustainability of organic farming depended on annual income of the farmers from these products.