The role and importance of agriculture and animal husbandry in rural development: The case of rural of Burdur province

The aim of this study is to examine the role and the importance of agriculture and animal husbandry in rural development both in the world and in Turkey by means of various indicators and data. In this main purpose, another aim of the study is to determine the current situation and problems of the Burdur dairy farms and to present the importance of agriculture and animal husbandry in the rural development of Burdur province. In this context, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 66 enterprises dealing with dairy cattle in the rural areas of Burdur, and the demographic, socio-economic and animal statistics of these enterprises were collected. In addition, strengths and weaknesses of these enterprises were also obtained based on the statements of the owners then the problems they faced in livestock activities in rural Burdur were analyzed by various categories. These problems were categorized in seven sections as (1) animal feeding, (2) milk, (3) incentives and policies, (4) production and costs, (5) sales, marketing and branding, (6) animal diseases and (7) cooperation, training and consultancy activities. As a result of the analysis, it was concluded that in general, the producers were expecting a decrease in costs and an increase in incentives in animal husbandry sector. The incentive and support conditions should be regulated and the cost generating elements should be reduced specifically for the producers in order to maintain the continuity in the sector, Results also show that agriculture and animal husbandry sector is very important for the rural development of Burdur province.