Determination of the factors affecting membership of breeders' association by structural equation modeling

Effective organization of producers is one of the most important factors to increase agricultural production, to obtain quality products and to raise the living standards of farmers. In this research it was studied to determine the factors affecting membership of the Breeders Association, which was one of the most important components of the producer organization, by using structural equation modelling. The scope of the work was constituted of 3 Breeders Association members organized in the Sivas province of Turkey. A survey was conducted with 369 breeders to collect primary data. The questionnaires were formed in two parts and in the first part where descriptive statistics were included, socio-economic characteristics of farmers were tried to be obtained. Chi-square, Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests were used in the analysis of the data obtained from this section. It was determined that member of different associations differed statistically in terms of marketing, participation in general assemblies, training and information sources. However there was no difference in terms of taking part in management board and the idea of investing among members. The second part consisted of 5 likert type questions for testing SEM. Due to the nature of the SEM, it was based on the theory. First, a theoretical model was created. Factors affecting membership in the model were Economic, Professional, Union activities, Democracy and Organization awareness and Social and Environmental factors. The created model was tested by data obtained. The model was not initially confirmed by the data. Therefore, a new model was obtained by modifying the first one. It was found that all of the identified factors were in the same direction and strong relationship with each other. It was determined that the ways drawn from union activity and social and environmental factors to membership were statistically significant and had a direct impact on membership. It can be suggested that the associations have to do much more serious and intensive work on the subject of providing input, agricultural extension and especially the marketing organizations for their members.