The investigation of bank card usage effectiveness and the factors affecting the use of bank card in the sample of Antalya province greenhouses

Finance that needs urgent solution is one of the most important problems of the agricultural sector in Turkey. The vast majority of producers do not have sufficient income and need financing to maintain the continuity of agricultural production. In this study, agricultural bank card application, which is one of the instruments for financing the agricultural sector, has been examined. These cards issued by Ziraat Bank particularly and other banks offer cards to producers under different names such as; Başak Kart, Üretici Kart, Mahsul Kart, Ekin Kart, Harman Kart, Verimli Kart and Tarım Kart. In the current card application; agricultural inputs are taken through the card and subsidies are applied over the costs of these inputs. There are also changes in the criteria such as interest rate, loan maturity and interest-free period applied by banks. Cards are generally used in agricultural inputs such as diesel, fertilizer, chemicals, feed, seeds and seedlings. The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of bank card usage in agriculture and the factors affecting the usage by factor analysis on the sample of the agricultural enterprises of Antalya. Aksu, Serik and Kumluca districts of Antalya province have been determined by considering the production capacity of the greenhouses as the research area. A survey was conducted based on face-to-face interviews with 100 greenhouse producers selected by snowball sampling method. Descriptive statistics and factor analysis were used to analyse the data. As a result of the study, it was observed that producers tend to continue to use agricultural bank cards. Herewith, 74% of the producers interviewed benefit from agricultural supports and 70% of the producers want agricultural support due to the fact that the transactions are easier and more practical. While producers find bank cards positive as it provides opportunity to make purchases when there is no cash and for post-harvest payments, high interest rates in the use of the card, using only in contracted enterprises and the commissioning of the supplier companies are considered as negative. The most important of the factor analysis results that affect the preference of card use, the general problems of agricultural production and the recommendations on card use explain 15.8% of the total variance. According to the factor analysis results related to the negative aspects of the card, the most important factor is the high rate of interest and the psychological pressure of being the debtor, explaining 20.66% of the total variance.