The Opinions and Expactations of the Farmers on Socio-Economic Impacts of Yortanlı Dam in Bergama District of Izmir Province

Özet

The aim of this study is to determine opinions and expectations of the farmers on socio-economic impacts of Yortanlı dam in Bergama district. For this pur-pose, nine settlements of Bergama district that will benefit from dam irrigation were included. In this research, data were collected from 87 farmers with pro-portional sampling and by the survey. In the analysis of the data, firstly the socio-economic characteristics of the farmers were examined. Then, the opin-ions and expectations of the farmers about the socio-economic impacts of the dam in various aspects were determined. Five-point Likert scale was used in this stage. According to the results of the research, 72.41% of the farmers stated that the dam had positive impacts on agricultural production. 34.48% of the farmers think that the dam increases agricultural income. 85.06% of the farmers believe that agricultural lands are used more effectively after the dam. On the other hand, 65.52% of the farmers think that the dam will not reduce the migration from the region. However, 51.72% of the farmes stated that the dam will affect the young farmers positively. As a result, with the development of irrigation opportunities with the dam, income level and employment opportuni-ties in the region may increase. Therefore, the young population in the region should be encouraged to agricultural production and private sector investments should be encouraged for processing agricultural products.