Examination of Dairy Producers' Perspectives on Livestock Policies in Biga Town of Çanakkale Province

Milk production is an important agricultural activity in biga town of çanakkale province. the share of milk production in the total animal production value of the town is around 55.0%. the purpose of this study is to evaluate the perspectives of the producers in biga town towards dairy policies and supports, to determine their utilization level from these policies, and to examine their consciousness level on these policies. in the study, the villages with the highest, medium and least milk production in biga town were selected and a survey was conducted with milk producers, members of the cooperatives in these selected villages, by using full count method. basic descriptive statistics were used to reveal the socio-economic status of the producers, the characteristics of their firms and their status of access to livestock supports. likert scale was used to determine the organizational status of the producers, the supports benefited by producers and the degree of satisfaction with them. factors affecting the utilization with existing livestock supports were analyzed by the “logistic regression” method. in the light of the findings obtained from the research, young and female producers should be supported and encouraged to carry out livestock activity within the framework of the existing rural development policies. the perspectives of the surveyed producers towards agricultural organization and their satisfaction level reveal the necessity to maintain continuity in agricultural organization activities. the encouragement of other organizational models especially agricultural producer associations in addition to agricultural development cooperatives will be important. when the findings related to producer income are examined, the income obtained from dairy farming compared to other sectors of agriculture is even higher, and the increase in the added value stemming from the increase of milk processing facilities in the region will further increase the income of the producers. in addition, activities increasing the awareness and conscious level of producers on livestock policies will help policy makers and decision makers to improve policies in effect by benefiting from the producers' perspectives.