Use of territorial products in regional development: Divle tulum cheese case

In this study a completed regional development Project was analyzed. The main objective of the study is to evaluate the outcomes of the project (My Cheese Divle), which was implemented through the grants of the European Union, based on the primary data obtained from the beneficiaries of the project and also to develop proposals that could be useful to those projects to be implemented in the future.Primary data were obtained through a questionnaire study and face to face interviews with cheese producers. Likert type measurement scales were employed to determine how much the target people had adopted and applied the information presented to them through training programs, held to standardize production and enhance the quality of the cheese production. In order to understand the extent of participation level of the producers to technical applications, questions were selected among subjects taught during training programs. It was concluded that the producers accepted the validity of the subjects taught to them in the programs but did not change their behaviors. In this respect, the project could be considered as unsuccessful. It is suggested that rural development projects in Turkey should be designed by measuring behavior and attitudes of the target people based on comprehensive field surveys. Post-project assessment is a subject as important as project design.