مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - A Study on the level of cooperation among the farmers and their expectations from the associations: The case of Van province

Abstract :

One of most important problems of agriculture sector is the fact that the producers in this sector are not well organized. The farmers need to be organized to be effective in the market and get a better price for their products. This study has been undertaken in Van Province in order to determine the level of farmer organization, farmers’ attitude towards organizing and their expectation from the farmers’ organizations. Data obtained from 118 face-to-face interviews using pre-arranged questionnaires constitute the primary material of the study. The data were analyzed using the SPSS program. Within the SPSS, Chi-square Multivariate Correspondence Analysis (MCA) techniques were employed. Farmers participating in the surveys have an average of 9.1 persons per household and 66.6 % of these families have more than 6 children. Average age of the farmers is 46.7; with 71.2 % of them having 21 or more years of experience in their field. 74.6 % of the farmers are the members of the Chamber of Agriculture, 27.1 % are the members of Agricultural Development Cooperative, 5.1 % are the members of Agricultural Credit Cooperative, and 11.0 % are the members of the Sugar beat Producers’ Cooperative. There is a significant relationship between the level of education and the membership in a farmers’ organization (p 0.05). It was determined that the expectations of farmers from a membership in Agricultural Development Cooperatives are fulfilled by 46.9%, while the expectations of the farmers from being a member in the Chamber of Agriculture are fulfilled by 75.8%.