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Assessing the
agricultural sustainability of conventional farming systems
in Samsun province of Turkey
V. Ceyhan
Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture,
University of Ondokuz Mayıs, Turkey. E-mail:
vceyhan@omu.edu.tr.
Tel: +905334390805.
Fax: + 903624576034.
Accepted 8 January, 2010 |
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The objective of this study was to evaluate the
sustainability of the agricultural activities in Samsun
province. Research data belongs to 2004-2005 production
period and was gathered from randomly selected 93 farms by
means of questionnaire. In this research, economical,
social, bio-physical and environmental sustainability of
agricultural activities were investigated. Total
sustainability index, based on the selected 40
sustainability indicators was used to determine
sustainability level. Research results revealed that some
serious problems in the aspect of agricultural
sustainability arise in the research area. The basic problem
is that of economic viability of farms in first and second
sub regions, while for third region, it is social
sustainability. The most deficient social factors in the
research area are insufficient sewerage systems, inadequate
health service and problematic land ownership issues. The
most important economic barrier is the low level of return
on asset. Unconscious and excessive chemical input use,
insufficient irrigation water and water erosion were the
most important environmental and bio-physical barriers for
agricultural sustainability. Increasing farm level
productivity and controlling production costs and investment
to the farm sector might enhance the sustainability of
agricultural activities in the area. These farm level
measures must be adopted by related government agencies and
especially infrastructural and land ownership problems
should be tackled as soon as possible.
Key
words:
Agricultural sustainability, sustainability index,
indicators.
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