Farmer approaches to the impact of wind power plants on crop farming in Kirsehir province

In recent years, demand of wind energy has increased due to its renewability, nature friendliness and easy applicability feature in many places. Underlying reasons of common use can be sorted as renewableity, nature- friendliness and easy installable opportunities to everywhere. Decrease in crop production is claimed becasue Wind Power Plants are being constructed in agricultural areas. In this study, changes in crop planting plans of farmers with regard to wind power plants constructed on agricultural lands in Kırşehir Province are investigated and the factors affecting production are tried to be determined. The study was conducted by using face to face questionnaries in Geycek, the region where power plants exist with the sample size of 171 determined by random sampling. To determine the attitute of farmer with respect to wind power plants, crosstabbing and probit regression analysis are conducted using the data collected from this survey and provided in the tables. According to the results of the analysis, proportion of farmers who did not alter their crop farming plants after existence of wind power plants is %74,3, while who did alter are %25,7 in the study area. Increase in the age of farmers and owning social security cause farmer do not change their plant pattern while number of household members who joins agricultural production and having knowledge about wind power plants causes farmers to alter their crop farming. Because of low impact of wind power plants on crop production and their contribution to economy and tourism in the region, it could be concludued that wind power plants should be encouraged to be constructed in proper agricultural lands.