The human and economic geography of Osmancik (Çorum)

Osmancık is located in the Central Black Sea of the Black Sea Region. As administrative, it is a district which is depend on the province Çorum. Osmancık of the district is 2518 ha. Osmancık is surrounded by Samsun in the north and northeast, Amasya in the east, Çorum Central district in the south, İskilip in the southeast and Kargı district in the northwest. Osmancık,where is on the way called D-100 that connects the Black Sea Region and the Eastern Anatolia to the west, is the junction of the roads of the Central Anatolia Region and Samsun-İstanbul. Osmancık is on the Silk Road which its history dates back to Istanbul, Erzurum and Iran. Therefore, due to this important strategic position, it has been exposed to continuous invasions and constantly changed hands in the history. Osmancık has a quite extensive river network. The largest river of this network is the Kızılırmak. The length of this river in the territorial boundaries of Osmancık is 80 km. Osmancık has a temperate climate because of being transitional climate between the Central Anatolia Region and the Black Sea Region. In general, summers are hot and dry, winters are mild and rainy. The 2014 central population of Osmancık is 27.879 Osmancık especially has developed and grown in recent years and won its city function. According to the 2014 population data, Osmancık has taken the third place after the Central district and Sungurlu in terms of the amount of population. It is in the fifth place in terms of area. Agriculture in Osmancık is an activity in the third plan after the industry and services. Agricultural farming is done only on the 12.333 hectares of land of Osmancık. The reason of agriculture farming holding an important place is due to the fact that agriculture has a significance in the third place. Because, instead of working in agriculture which requires much effort and benefits low incomes, most people prefer working in different jobs. Paddy comes the first place from agricultural products derived from arable land of the town in terms of contribution to the economy of the district. Although being a settlement famous for its Osmancık rice, land area allocated to rice is decreasing every day. The industry in Osmancık is newly developing. Existing industry is consisting of land industrial and factories based on agricultural products. The textile factories and milk and dairy product factories have been added to these in recent years. Natural and human factors in the town center affects the distribution of population and settlement density.Generally stream edges are places devoted to rice farming. The population is small, and the settlement pattern is rare in these areas. Settlement pattern and population in Osmancık shows the distribution depending on the hydrographic features. Key Words: Geography, City, Osmancık, Red River, Corum, Rice.