The economic comparison of the wire and goble vine training systems applied in the vineyards of Diyarbakir province

Diyarbakır province has quite favourable soil and agroecological conditions for viticulture, which has been practised using traditional methods for centuries. Wired training systems are new in the province and introduced with the sample vineyards and the efforts by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in recent years. In this study, it was aimed to examine and compare the wired and traditional Goble training systems at farm level considering the technical and economic aspects. Study area covers Ergani, Dicle, Çermik and Eğil districts where viticulture is commercially performed. Study data were obtained through structured questionnaires completed during face-to-face interviews from the vineyard farms. Sample size was calculated according to the stratified sampling method. Descriptive statistical methods, independent samples t-test and chi-square test were used in data analysis. According to the results, average vineyard size was found to be 1.91 and 1.25 ha as the average grape yields were 1838 and 6689 kg per hectare for the vineyards farms of Goble and wired training systems, respectively. It was revealed that vineyard establishments of the Goble training systems were mostly not irrigated while the establishments of the wired training systems were irrigated. It was also determined that vineyard diseases, low yield and marketing problems were the high-ranking ones among the viticulture problems, experienced by the respondents. Gross profit was calculated to be 7210 ₺ and 12412 ₺ per hectare for the Goble and wired training systems, respectively as the net profit was negative for the vineyards of both training systems. It was concluded that for the viable and profitable vineyard businesses, farmers should be established using wired training systems and the high yielding, disease/pest resistant varieties.