Production cost of chickpea and producers problems in Kütahya province

Turkey has not been self-sufficient in recent years in the production of chickpeas. The farmer is also concerned about instability at the last price. As a research field, Kütahya province, which is one of the important illusions in terms of chickpea cultivation area and production amount, was selected in Turkey. There are more technical aspects of chickpea production in Turkey. This study aimed to (i) examine socio-economic structures of chickpea producing enterprises in Kütahya province, (ii) to perform functional analysis of production, (iii) to identify problems related to production and to develop them in solution proposals. The data were obtained by questionnaire from 85 farmers determined by stratified sampling method. In the calculation of costs in farms, a single product budget analysis method was used. The Cobb-Douglas production function examined the relation between production and inputs. The average age of the interviewed chickpea producers was 50.13 years; the education level was 6.94 years; the household size was calculated as 3.94 people. In the study, the average experience time in chickpea cultivation was 21.28 years and experience in agricultural activity was 27.84 years. This has revealed that chickpea production has been done in this region for a long time. The average number of pieces of chickpea cultivation areas ranged from 1.40 to 8.16. The average area of cultivated chickpeas was found to be 36.50 decares. It was determined that 95% of these lands were owned by the farmers. The share of variable costs in total production costs is 67.59%. The average variable cost of the farms was 6967.64 TL, the fixed costs were 3340.81 TL. The cost of seeds was determined as 84.44 TL. Fertiliser cost per decares was calculated as 8.46 TL on average, and the pesticide cost was 9.16 TL. In the enterprises, the gross production value obtained from the decare production of chickpeas was calculated as 580.72 TL, the gross profit was 389.83 TL, and the absolute profit was 298.30 TL. The relative profit was determined as 2.06. The functional analysis of chickpea production was analysed using a Cobb-Douglas type production function. The total production flexibility for inputs was found to be 1.272. This value refers to the increasing return to the scale. Therefore, an increase of 10% of all inputs will increase the amount of chickpea production by 12.72%. The farmers stated that the most important problem in the region is the high input prices. This was followed by low product price, disease and pest problems. To increase the production of chickpeas in the research area; raising awareness of producers, establishing a cooperative for chickpea, reducing input costs and increasing government subsidies have been proposed.