Risk perception and behaviors in livestock sector: case in the city of Afyonkarahisar

Animal Husbandry is one of the most basic production and operation field in Afyonkarahisar province. Planning and creating the right industrial production infrastructure has a great importance for the future of Afyonkarahisar province as well as for the whole country. But a correct and rational evaluation can be made through the eyes of the producers which sees the industry as a whole and through creating a good risk perception. Considering these factors, the aim of this work is to find which risk behaviors are observed amongst the owners who is doing business in animal husbandry industry in Afyonkarahisar province and what factors they see as a risk at which rates. Data used in this research consists of information obtained from the survey made to the owners doing business in animal husbandry industry in Bolvadin, Çay, Sultandağı, Dinar, İhsaniye, Çobanlar and the central district of Afyonkarahisar province. Factor Analysis is used in this work to these obtained data and questions related to risk behaviors and risk sources are gathered in the factors. Risk behaviors and risk sources ratings and their frequency values are presented in tables briefly. Because of the correlation between the demographical features of the proprietors with the features of their animal farms and their perception of risk behaviors and risk sources is not normally distributed, analysis is done by using Mann-Whitney U Test and Kruskall Wallis Test. To determine the effects of the risk behaviors on perceiving the risk sources, a model is created by applying multi linear regression analysis. According to the final results, through the example of Afyonkarahisar province, evaluations are made about the future of animal husbandry industry in our country and some suggestions are made according to this evaluation. Keywords: Risk, risk behaviors, risk perception, factor analysis, multi linear regression, animal husbandry industry