Farmers' views on the effects on agriculture sector of Turkey's accession membership into the European Union: Case study of cotton farmers in Aegean Region, Turkey

Relationships between the EU and Turkey started on July 31, 1959, through Turkey's application for associate membership into the EEC. In the period until today, effects on the Turkish agriculture sector of Turkey's accession into the EU have been continuously debated and there is no agreement on the issue among the farmers. The main objective of this study is to identify the farmers' views on the effects on agriculture sector of Turkey's accession into the EU and the factors affecting these views. In this respect 266 cotton farmers in the Aegean Region were interviewed. About 42% of the cotton farmers believe that Turkey's accession to the EU will have positive effects on Turkish agriculture sector. When farms were grouped into four (positive, negative, doesn't affect, I don't know) according to farmers' views, no differences related to the farms and farmers were found among the groups. On the other hand, according to multinomial logistic regression results, some factors related to the farms (farm size, cotton plantation area) and farmers (education, family size, habit of reading newspaper) have been found distinctive between three groups (with the views such as negative, doesn't affect and I don't know) and that with the view that membership into the EU will affect Turkish agriculture sector in a positive way.