Farmers’ Attitudes to the Pricing of Natural Resources for Sustainability: GAP-Şanlıurfa Sampling of Turkey

Abstract

This research aims to evaluate farmers’ attitudes to the pricing of natural resources, mainly water and soil resources, in GAP-Şanlıurfa-Turkey. It will also define farmers’ willingness to accept pricing for the sustainability of resources and explore the potential factors that contribute to such willingness. The data comes from a sample of 1105 farmers in Şanlıurfa who were chosen by a simple random sampling method and participants were interviewed face to face by questionnaires. The logistic regression is used for analysis. The results indicate that 40% of the farmers have a positive attitude to the pricing of resources for protection and sustainability. The most affecting factors are the location of the farmers, the number of agricultural manpower at the household, land amount, ownership status, income derived from agriculture, and livestock. The average willingness-to-pay amount was calculated in USD as $48.8/ha. Where public finance is insufficient to meet the demands, the willingness-to-pay amount may be used in co-investments. In this way, both the financing problem can be overcome and the ownership rate of the users can be increased. Therefore, the results could be helpful for decision- and policy-makers to develop strategies for the sustainability of resources for GAP-Turkey and areas with similar socioeconomic characteristics.