Factors accelerating agricultural innovation and sustainability: The case of paddy farmers.

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study is to reveal the accelerating factors affecting both the innovativeness and sustainability levels of paddy farmers. The data used in the study were obtained from the questionnaires conducted with 70 paddy farmers in the Bafra district of Samsun province, determined by a simple random sampling method. Paddy farmers were divided into three groups as low, medium, and high innovativeness groups with Hierarchical Cluster Analysis. The ANOVA was used to compare the socioeconomic and farming characteristics of the paddy farmers, and Accelerated Failure Time models were used to analyze the factors affecting the innovativeness and sustainability variables. The research results indicated that the formal education years, the agricultural experience, the amount of labor per unit area, the animal assets, the share of agricultural income in the total income, the number of memberships to farmer organizations, paddy production area, sustainable agriculture area, and cooperation scores were different to the innovativeness groups. The farmer collaboration in agricultural activities increased the being an innovator. The results concluded that the formal education year, Global Gap practice, agricultural experience, household size, animal assets, and women's employment were influential on both innovativeness and sustainability variables. Encouraging the participation of women in agricultural production in rural areas, including sustainability-related issues in addition to technical issues in farmer training programs, and ensuring the participation of women in these training are the issues that should be considered for the future.