Farmers' Risk Perception towards Climate Change: A Case of the GAP-Sanliurfa Region, Turkey

The purpose of this research is to evaluate farmers' risk perception towards climate change in dry farming areas of the, Sanliurfa province in Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) Region, Turkey, and their willingness to pay for adaptation practices and explore the potential factors that contribute to the understanding of climate change. The main material of this research comes from a sample of 466 farmers among 32,809 in, Sanliurfa who were chosen via a simple random sampling method. Sampling was conducted in 2014 and participants were interviewed face to face by questionnaires and local interviewers were used in order to maximize the reliability of the results. The logistic regression and fit tests were used for analysis. The results indicate that 53% of farmers have a risk perception about climate change and 62% of farmers accept paying for adaptation practices to reduce its potential effects. Explanatory affecting factors, such as age, agricultural income, amount of land owned, farming experience, agricultural credit usage, household numbers, non-agricultural manpower, education level and water perception, significantly explained the risk perceptions. This study is one of the first of its type in GAP-Sanliurfa, Turkey. Therefore, the results could be helpful for decision- and policy-makers to develop adaptive strategies.