Behaviors and knowledge levels of greenhouse vegetable producers in plant protection practices in İstanbul province

The purpose of this study was to determine the behaviors and knowledge levels of greenhouse vegetable producers in plant protection practices in Istanbul province. In this context, a questionnaire survey was conducted with 267 producers involved in greenhouse vegetable cultivation in 2024. In order to quantitatively measure the plant protection application behaviors and knowledge levels of the producers, scores were made according to their answers to the survey questions. The scores of the producers were ranked and they were divided into 3 groups: less than half of the total score as "low", half to 2/3 as 'medium' and more than 2/3 as "high". It was identified that 46,44% of the producers had "low", 32.96% had 'medium' and 20.60% had "high" level of knowledge and application of plant protection practices. Paired and multiple comparison tests were used to analyze whether there was a difference between the producers' gender, age range, education level, training on greenhouse cultivation, duration of cultivation, greenhouse cultivation areas, family income from agricultural activities and their knowledge and application levels. There was no statistical difference between the gender of the producers and the districts of cultivation in terms of knowledge application score. The knowledge and application scores of the producers who earn their family income only from agricultural activities and the producers who received training on greenhouse cultivation were higher; "The knowledge and application scores of middle-aged producers between the ages of 31-50 were higher than the producers in the other age group; the knowledge and application scores of the producers whose educational status was 'literate' were lower than all the other educational status, the knowledge and application scores of the producers whose educational status was " bachelor's degree" were higher than all the other educational status;the knowledge and practice scores of the producers with "11-20 years" of farming experience were higher than the scores of the producers with "less than 10 years" and "more than 21 years" of farming experience; the knowledge and practice scores of the producers with a farming area of more than 3 decares were higher than the scores of the producers with a farming area of less than 3 decares. Producers have to be trained and made aware of the application of pesticides, issues to be considered during and after application, the effects of pesticides on humans, the environment and non-target organisms, residue, waiting time, resistance, pesticide rotation, phytotoxicity, calibration, storage of pesticides and elimination of pesticide packaging waste, Integrated Pest Management, Economic Damage Level, cultural, physical, biotechnical and biological control methods. Keywords: Greenhouse cultivation, Istanbul, plant protection practices, knowledge level