Investigation of the effects agricultural support policies on agroecological applications in tomatoes production in greenhouse: A case study from Kumluca district of Antalya province

In this study, it is aimed to examine the effect of greenhouse tomatoes production support policies on agroecological practices in Antalya Province Kumluca District. For this purpose, a face-to-face survey was conducted with 115 tomato producers in the Kumluca district of Antalya province. In determining the socio-demographic characteristics of the producers, the t-test was used to reveal the supports utilized from descriptive statistics according to the level of realization of agroecological practices, and logistic regression analysis was used to determine the effect of support policies in greenhouse production and socio-demographic characteristics on agroecological practices. In the study, the sustainability index was also calculated in order to determine the sustainability level of tomato production. It was determined that 70.3% of the producers in the examined farms had the level of applying agroecological methods in the low-level category, 29.57% of them were in the medium-level category, and no producers were included in the high-level category. The level of benefiting from agricultural supports of the enterprises is 98.26% and it has been determined that only 19.35% of the supports provided cover the supports given to agroecological practices. With the increase in the period of agricultural experience in the greenhouse, the rate of membership in any producer organization and the increase in the tomato production area, the probability of applying agroecological methods decreased; It has been determined that the possibility of applying agroecological methods increases with the increase in the level of obtaining agricultural information by the producers using the mass media regularly, the increase in the number of family labor and the increase in the amount of agricultural support. In this context, taking environmental protective measures in tomato production in greenhouses, promoting agroecological practices and protecting the farmer's welfare are very important in terms of agricultural sustainability, and it is recommended that policy makers plan their agricultural support policies accordingly. Key Words: Tomatoes, Agricultural supports, Agroecological practices, Antalya, Greenhouse production