Socio-Economic Characteristics of Producers and Economic Size Classes of Enterprises According To Typologies and Risk Attitudes in TR21 Region

The aim of this study was to determine the typologies of agricultural enterprises operating in the TR21 Region according to the Farm Accounting Data Network methodology and the risk attitudes of the producers. According to the typologies and risk attitudes of the enterprises, the socio-economic characteristics of the producers and the economic size classes of the enterprises were determined. As a result of sampling based on a 95% confidence interval and a 10% margin of error, the number of enterprises surveyed was determined as 334. While 63.77% of the enterprises were specialized in field crops, 25.45% engaged in mixed livestock and plant production. Additionally, 7.49% were specialized in pasture livestock and 3.29% were in the perennial plant farming group. In the enterprises examined, 55.09% of the producers were classified as risk-averse and 44.91% as risk-lover. Of the average land holdings, 71.25% was property and 28.75% was rented land. It was noteworthy that the land rental rate in risk-lover enterprises was higher than in risk-averse enterprises. It was concluded that risk-lover enterprises had higher production value in both plant production and animal production, and risk-averse enterprises were engaged with product and animal diversity as they avoided taking risks. On average, in risk-lover enterprises, 53.64% of the operating expenses were vegetative special expenses and 46.36% were animal special expenses. In risk-averse enterprises, the share of vegetative special expenses in total expenses was 47.15%, and the share of animal special expenses was 52.85%. Compared to the average of enterprises and all enterprise typologies, standard gross profit was found to be higher in risk-lover enterprises. In enterprise typology groups, the average ESU values of the enterprises varied between 10.88 and 33.80 ESU. According to enterprise typologies, risk-averse agricultural enterprises in specialized field crop farming and perennial plant farming were in the below-medium enterprise class, while other enterprise groups were in the above-medium enterprise class.