The contribution of laurel production to rural economy and its management (sample of Bursa province)

Laurel (Laurus nobilis L.), one of the important medicinal and aromatic plants of our country, is a non-wood forest product with high local and national economic value. The majority (95%) of the world's production of laurel is provided from Turkey. The fact that laurel is the subject to export has resulted in becoming a tool for reducing rural poverty and increasing economic development. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the contribution of the laurel to the rural economy and the producer profile, to determine the problems in the laurel production process and to reveal the expectations of the forest villagers. As the study area, 6 villages where laurel production is carried out in Mustafakemalpaşa and Karacabey districts of Bursa were selected. A face-to-face survey was conducted with randomly selected 82 households. The demographic characteristics of the household members, their monthly income, alternative income sources, their income from laurel, the amount of tonne produced, the sales price of the kilogram, the problems and expectations regarding the production and management process were investigated through the survey form. In order to examine the profiles of forest villagers, descriptive statistics and statistical analyzes were performed using excel and IBM SPSS software. It was found out that the households in Bursa have alternative income sources such as linden, chestnut, black fig and olive harvest in addition to laurel. The forest villagers who produces laurel have a household income around the average minimum wage (2.800 TL/month) and the income from laurel accounting for about 31% of the household income. As a result, it was found out that, collecting and selling the leaves of the laurel, and working in the leaves drying plant provide employment to approximately 1.050 forest villagers. In 2021, it was observed that laurel contributed average 10.680 TL annually to households while it contributed approximately 5,6 million TL to forest villagers in total. As a result of the correlation analysis, a statistically significant relationship was found between the annual average household income from laurel production, the amount of annual laurel productioned, the number working day in laurel production and the household size (p<0.05). The result of the statistical analysis showed that, working in the laurel harvest provides more income than working in the drying plant or both harvesting and drying plant, and selling the collected laurel directly to intermediaries provides more income than selling it to the headman, factory or cooperative.