Improvement of livelihood for Small-Scale Farmers in Eastern Blacksea Region

The Project was implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) of the Government of Turkey in cooperation with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The baseline survey consisted of 3 major components, which are general data collection, marketing survey and farming analysis.

The major objectives are
•    collect general information in the rural areas
•    collect benchmark information
•    Search alternative livehood in the region
•    Assess needs and constraints
•    Plan and implement a regional project to improve the livehood of small-scale farmers
•    Design of a questionnaire for running a household baseline survey.

AGRIN carried out a baseline survey in 4 counties and 7 villages of Trabzon, with 105 households. The purpose of the survey is i) to collect general information in the rural area of Trabzon, ii) to collect bencmark information for the project, and iii) search alternative livelihood in the region, thus preparing a baseline data for the project implementation by the means of interviewing with farmers in selected villages. The survey assessed current status of household structure, agricultural and agribusiness activities, constraints, needs, input supply, marketing of products, alternative agriculture opportunities, production costs, income and expenditures of households. Following the analysis of data, Agrin prepared a report on the existing situation related to above mentioned subjects, as well as suggestions for improvement of the activities of small scale farmers. For the purpose of this study Agrin provided an economist, agronomist, sociologist, statistician and an agrobusiness expert for the field survey.