Abstract

Pelin Karaca, Orhan Gul and Kadri Ulrick

In recent days, healthy and reliable food has become one of the most important issues. Therefore, socialeconomic situation and status of agrochemical firms which are important information sources for farmers are examined. In this study, the data obtained from the owners of agrochemical markets in Isparta province were investigated by survey method. Data were evaluated to investigate the employer structure, obtaining selling inputs and credit usage of the firms. 56.2% of these firms were in company form and 6 of them were wholesaler. The agrochemical firms in Isparta region are small scaled newly established and individually owned firms. Most of them operate with their own capital. Agrochemical markets were positively affected by the latest regulations about opening the new agrochemical firms. It may be said that this tendency will be better in the future and agricultural agrochemical firms will employ agricultural engineers. Agrochemical firms are important organizations to inform farmers for new methods and development. Firms were found conscious on the agricultural chemical usage, but the cooperation between the firms and agricultural organization was found to be weak. Level of knowledge about EUROGAP among firm owners was also low. In order to improve the interaction level of firms with other institution and organization, seminar and panels should be organized. The consciousness level of agrochemical firms about production techniques like IPM and EUROGAP were not found to be high. Organizing training programs to increase awareness is important. Information level of farmers about diseases in the region has not developed as desired yet. In the same way, in order to increase the level of knowledge and awareness of farmers, the training programs should be increased to reduce unconscious chemical usage. As a result, one should not forget that any improvement in agricultural drug stores will have reflection on producers as well.