Measuring livestock farmers' effect on sustainable agricultural and rural development

I Boz, C Akbay, G Jordan* and A Kamalak**

Assistant Professor, KSU Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Agricultural Economics, Kahramanmaras Turkey 46100
ismetboz@ksu.edu.tr
*Former Lecturer, Harper Adams University College, Newport, Shropshire
**Assistant Professor, KSU Faculty of Agriculture Department of Animal Science

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine livestock raising farmers' effect on sustainable use of agricultural and natural resources in the rural areas of Kahramanmaras Province of Turkey. The minimum usable sample needed was 208 based on stratified sampling technique. A farmers' self-evaluation sustainable agricultural index was developed and applied to farmers located in four different districts of Kahramanmaras Province. In terms of sustainable agricultural practices included in the index, farmers who raised livestock were compared with farmers who grew crops only. The binary logistic regression procedure was employed to determine the influence of each selected sustainable agricultural practice on the probability that farmers raise livestock in their farms.

Results showed that as farmers grow legume crops, use animal manure, take adequate measures to protect publicly owned rangelands, personally involve in commodity marketing, not use fallow, and properly use farm machinery and equipment, they tend to raise livestock in their farms. Therefore, livestock raising farmers make significant contributions to sustainable use of agricultural and natural resources.

Keywords: livestock production, sustainability, sustainable agriculture

Introduction

"Sustainable development as a concept represents the latest step in a long evolution of public concerns with respect both to natural resources and to the environment" (Batie 1989). It is defined as "development that meets the needs for the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (The World Commission on Environment and Development 1987). This definition indicates that to meet their needs, the present generations have no right to overuse natural resources and the environment, which will ultimately threat the living standards of the future generations. Therefore, stewardship of both natural and human resources is of prime importance (Freenstra 1997). Advocates of sustainable development perceive that the biosphere imposes limits on economic growth, express a lack of faith in either science or technology as leading to human betterment, are extremely averse to environmental risks, support redistributive justice and egalitarian ethics, profess concern over population growth and have faith in the wisdom of human capital development, and have survival of species and protection of the environment and of minority cultures, rather economic growth per se, as goals (Batie 1989).

Sustainable agriculture is defined as a dynamic set of practices and technologies that minimize damage to the environment while providing income to the farm over a long time span (Flora 1992). It integrates three main goals- environmental health, economic profitability, and social and economic equity (Feenstra 1997). Although sustainable agriculture is generally defined with the negative term low input agriculture, this may not be fair because sustainable agricultural system use the very best technology in balanced, well managed, and environmentally responsible system (Hess 1991). The operational goals of sustainable agriculture, as stated by Benbrook (1991), include the following: (a) more through incorporation of natural processes such as nutrient cycling, nitrogen fixation, and beneficial pest-predator relationships into the agricultural production process; (b) reduction in the use of off-farm inputs with the greatest potential to harm the environment or the health of farmers and consumers; (c) productive use of the biological and genetic potential of plant and animal species; (d) improvement in the match between cropping patterns and the productive potential and physical limitations of agricultural lands; and (e) profitable and efficient production with emphasis on improved farm management, prevention of animal diseases, optimal integration of livestock and cropping enterprises, and conservation of soil, water, energy, and biological resources.

Agriculture in Turkey makes a contribution of 10% of the GNP, produces almost 45% of the raw materials consumed by the national industry, provides 7% of the total export revenues, nourishes of a population approximately 70 millions, and creates employment to 42% of the working population (SIS 2003). Therefore agriculture is still playing a vital role in Turkish economy.

Although agriculture plays a vital role in Turkey's economy, farmlands are subject to agricultural marginalization and desertification. Agricultural marginalization as defined by Brouwer et al (1997) is a process driven by a combination of social, economic, political and environmental factors, by which certain areas of farmland cease to be viable under an existing land use and socioeconomic structure. The principle drivers of land marginalization in Turkey are use of fertile agricultural land for unsuitable purposes such as building land for industrial sites and tourism, rural migration, fragmentation of farms, degradation of rangelands, unsuitable farming practices, and industrial pressures exaggerated as a result of growing population (Jordan et al 2002). Beside land marginalization, desertification is also a major constraint to natural resource base. According to UN statistics 109.124 km² land are desert and 374,441 km² are in danger of desertification. Desertification in Turkey is mainly caused by improper land use, excessive grazing, fuel, wood and plant collection. Moderate impacts result from improper farming and natural causes such as wind erosion and flooding (Jordan et al 2002).

Kahramanmaras is located in the Northeastern part of Mediterranean region of Turkey. It has 357,560 hectares of agricultural land, approximately 2 percent of Turkey's total sown area. The main plants cultivated in the region include grains, cotton, red pepper, sunflower, and a large variety of fruits and vegetables. It is evident that the last two decades' agricultural policies and economic development strategies have displayed little appreciation of the importance of natural resource use and environmental protection. This caused for Kahramanmaras to suffer from a high level of erosion, which is considered as the main constrain in the realization of sustainable agriculture. The main cause of erosion in the province can be identified as water, including irrigation runoff, wind and the direct effect of tillage (Jordan et al 2002). These processes are accelerated by agriculture and facilitated by steep terrain and fragile vegetative cover, creating problems such as poor soil quality a main constraint in realization of sustainable land use and resulting in "a reduced productive potential and a diminished capacity to provide benefits to humanity" (Brady and Weil 1999). Illegally and unlawful use of natural land stocks and forests, and misuse of pesticides and chemicals are also serious constrains in realization of sustainable agriculture and rural development in the region.

In order to achieve the goals of sustainable agriculture and rural development in Kahramanmaras, it can be assumed that crop and livestock production should be accompanied with proper farm management, and maintenance of publicly owned natural resources. Farm level practices may include, but are not limited to, control of chemicals, pests management, proper irrigation, crop rotation, legume rotation, use of animal manure, proper grazing of range lands, land consolidation, proper use of agricultural machinery, proper care of plant and animal health, and so on. Considering the ecology, farm system, and socioeconomic structure of a region, similar farm level practices, which aim to protection and long term utilization of farmland and other natural resources can also be applied.

Livestock production is considered as a part of agricultural production, and makes substantial contributions to Turkey's economic development. It constitutes approximately 23% of agricultural value; provides the basic meet and dairy products needed by the urban and rural households; makes significant contributions to textile and leather industries; increases cash availability for the family farms (Yurdakul et al 1999); increases organic matter of soil by providing manure; makes it possible for rural families to utilize land which is not appropriate for cultivation, as well as, to utilize publicly owned resources such as meadows and range lands; requires fodder crop production which increases soil fertility when included in a rotation pattern; increases labor productivity within a family farm; provides animal power when tractor purchase is not economical; and in terms of climatic and environmental conditions it is a less risky facility as compared to crop production alone (Duzgunes and Elicin, 1986).

Since livestock provides many benefits both for family farmers and for the economy as a whole, it can be hypothesized that it also makes significant contributions to sustainable use of agricultural potential in rural areas. However, there have been a lack of studies in Turkey, which investigate the influences and/or contributions of livestock on sustainability of agriculture. Therefore, a study identifying various sustainable agricultural practices related to farming and maintenance of publicly owned natural resources in rural areas, and investigating whether or not livestock influence the application of these identified practices was needed. The main objectives of this study were:

1. to determine if the application of each of the selected sustainable agricultural practices differs between mixed farming system (producing crop and livestock in the same farm) and farmers groving crops alone.
2. to determine the effect of each selceted sustainable agricultural practice on the probability of producing livestock in the farm.

Materials and Methods

Population and Sample

Target population for this study was defined as Kahramanmaras farm operators in the central district, Pazarcik, Turkoglu, and Elbistan counties. From these four locations, twelve villages were selected based on agricultural potential, geographic location, population intensity, and possibilities of representing socioeconomic characteristics of rural life in the region. From each village a list of farm operators showing their farm sizes was obtained from the District Agricultural Office. Lists of twelve selected villages made the accessible population of the study. Considering frequency distributions of farm sizes, accessible population was divided in three strata with 1-50 decares, 51-150 decares, and more than150 decares. Yamane's (2001) stratified sample size determination formula was used to identify the sample size. The equation for this formula is:

where

n = sample size,
N = accessible population,
Nh = number of persons in a stratum,
Sh = standard deviation within a stratum,
D² = desired variance,
e = accepted error from the mean, and
t = t value corresponding the accepted confidence interval.

Accepting 5 percent error from the mean (e) and 95 percent confidence interval (t = 1.645), the sample size was calculated as 208. This number was proportionally distributed to three strata, and respondents from each stratum were randomly selected.

Developing a Farm Level Sustainability Indicator

In order to compare farmers who raise livestock in their farms with the farmers growing crops alone, a farm level sustainable indicator was developed by the researchers. This indicator included various practices/actions, which were assumed to have positive influence on the sustainable use of agricultural lands, and socioeconomic structure of the population living in rural areas. The practices/actions included in this study were found useful by many researchers in promoting sustainable use of natural resources. For example, crop rotation (Peel 1998), growing legume crops (Boerma et al 2001), using animal manure (Johnson and Eckert 1995), proper use of pesticides (Deer 1998), not burning the residues (Suzer 2002), growing cover crops (Peet 2001), proper use of chemical fertilizers (Watschke 1998), adequate measures for soil erosion (Erpul 2004), proper use of water and irrigation (Tekinel 2002), not using fallow (Kun et al 1990) make significant contributions to sustainable use of farmland. In addition, taking adequate measures to protect publicly owned rangelands, tree planting in environmentally less advantaged farm surroundings, conducting soil test and using fertilizers accordingly, personal involvement in commodity marketing, and proper use of farm machinery and equipment are also considered useful practices for sustainable agriculture. Moreover, farmland in the research area has been subject to division, fragmentation, and use of unsuitable purposes. Therefore, each farmer's intention of purchasing more land and enlarging the farm, not selling farmland for the use of unsuitable purposes such as building industrial sites and tourism, and upon retiring leaving the farmland to only one of the children who really like farming, instead of dividing it equally among all children were also included in the indicator of sustainable use of agricultural resources.

Data Collection

The 18 farm level practices/actions included in the sustainable agriculture indicator were properly worded with two choices. If each of the practices was applied in farmers' own circumstances the answer was "yes", and "no" otherwise. These were the independent variables of the study. Respondents were also asked whether or not they raise livestock in their farms and this was treated as the dependent variable of the study. Panel of experts established validity for the data collection instrument. It was also pre-tested and slight changes were made for establishing reliability. Data were collected in October and September 2003. SPSS - Version 11.5 (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) was used for data analyses.

Analytical Procedures

The study used the Chi-square contingency test for independence to determine whether significant differences existed between livestock producers and nonproducers in terms of the selected 18 sustainable agriculture practices. The formula for this test is:

where,
n_i are the observed frequencies in the k categories and
E_i represent the expected frequencies (Freund and Wilson 1993).

Eighteen Chi-square tests were conducted to determine whether each of the sustainable agricultual practices selected was independent of producing livestock in the farm. "Although this test can describe relationships between or amaong variables, it cannot measure the combined influence of a group of explanatory varianbles on a specific dependent variable" (McLean-Meyinsse 1997). Therefore, to analyse the influence of each explanatory variable on the dependent variable, which is a dichotomous variable, the binary logistig regression was used (Maddala 1983; Greene 2000). The dependent variable was coded whether respondents raise livestock in their farms (y=1), or not (y=0). The logit model is written:

where
Prob(y=1) is the probability of 1,
e is the base of the natural logarithm,
f(xβ) is the standard logistic distribution function, and
x is the explanatory variable vector, which include the selected sustainable agricultural practices.

These were also colected as dichotomous variables with 1 = the selected sustainable agricultural practice is applied in farmers own circumstances, and 0 = otherwise.

The odds ratios for all of the explanatory variables were calculated considering the following formula:

It indicates for a single explanatory variable that when holding all other variables constant, respondents who apply the given sustainable agricultural practice, is more likely to raise livestock in their farms than respondents who don't apply the same practice.

Findings

Results of the study are presented by the objectives. Objective 1 of the study was to determine if the application of each of the selected sustainable agricultural practices differs between farmers raising livestock in their farms and farmers growing crops alone. Chi-square test of independence procedure was used to accomplish this objective. Results are showed in Table 1. From the Table, 8 of 18 factors were found significant at the 0.05 level of probability or better. The significant factors were using legume crops, using animal manure, proper use of chemical fertilizers, taking adequate measures for publicly owned rangelands, tree planting in environmentally less advantaged farmland, personal involvement in commodity marketing, using fallow, and proper use of farm machinery and equipment.