Willingness to Pay Additional Water Rate and Irrigation Knowledge of Farmers in Dinar Karakuyu Irrigation Areas in Turkey

Abstract

Water which has become commodity product which is an important product today. Turkey is not a water rich country. In this study, agricultural enterprises in the field of Irrigation Project in Dinar Karakuyu which was implemented in 1992 by DSI. The study analysed which factors affect the willingness to pay additional irrigation water rate with the help of logit model and the irrigation knowledge of farmers was determined by Likert scale. Dinar Karakuyu irrigation network has begun to lose the function in the region. It was supposed 100% irrigation rate but decreased by approximately 9% today. In this context, DSI (General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works) plans to rehabilitation work in the same area. The main material of this study was data obtained from 67 agricultural enterprises through a survey covered by the Irrigation Rehabilitation Project in the province of Afyonkarahisar Karakuyu Dinar. The data was gathered with the help of questionnaires which were answered by farmers in Karakuyu Dinar region. The results indicated that 74.6% of farmers were willingness to pay additional water charge. The data were statistically analysed with the use of the logit model. The model results show that agricultural income, farmers‘ educational level, computer ownership, attendance of agricultural training activities, family size and agricultural experience were positive factors affect farmers‘ willingness to pay additional water fee.