Socio-economic situations of farmers in the Tigris basin and their behavior on land degradation / desertification

In this study was aimed at determining the public knowledge on land degradation and desertification in the Tigris basin and the attitude and behavior of public towards land degradation and desertification as well as their socio-economic conditions. In the scope of this research, face to face questioner survey was conducted with 177 farmers/agriculturists in the study area. The structure and socio-economic conditions of the holdings of farmer/agriculturists, thoughts about land degradation and desertification, ground water use, management practices, management practices to cope with the factors decreasing yields and reaction towards land degradation and desertification were noted during survey. Among the farmers participating in the survey, 95.5% were with an average family of 8.1 persons. The majority (75.2%) of the producers in the research area were young producers under the age of 49. According to the literacy status of the producers participating in the survey; 10.7% were illiterate, 16.4% could only read and write, 31.7% are primary and middle school graduates, 26.0% were college graduates, whereas 15.3% of the producers were graduated from technical colleges. The majority of the farmers (76.6%) are dealing with crop farming in the research area and most of them are small farmers (average size 42.8 da). 86.2% of livestock producers think that pastures are insufficient in terms of quality and area in case of animal nutrition. The definition and cause of desertification by producers is concentrated around the axis of "water scarcity and drought". It is determined that due to socio-economic conditions, farmers tend to use more agricultural inputs to obtain more products, and they are undecided about whether more input use (especially fertilizer and pesticide) will cause land degradation. Consideration of desertification as a preventable problem by a significant number of producers can be seen as a reflection of the producers' hopeful and willingness to fight desertification.