Abstract

Agricultural sector is one of the most sluggish and inefficient sectors in Turkey, the main reasons behind this are excessive rural population, small farm sizes and inefficient farm management. One of the most important tools to solve these issues is the extension service. This study aims to find out the factors that influence the people’s incentives to receive extension services in Northeast Anatolia region of Turkey. For this end, a survey study on 600 farmers from 30 forest villages was conducted. Using this data, a limited dependent variable model with binomial probit estimation procedure was estimated. The study results imply that education level of farmers needs to be increased, young farmers must be encouraged to involve in farming and farmers should be supported to increase their farm sizes in order to have more effective extension services.

Key words: Extension services, attributes of farmers, forest villages, northeast Anatolia.