Abstract
Crop production after natural calamities requires compensation system similar to crop insurance. Developing crop insurance in line with international practice is critical to the sound development of the country’s agriculture. The new government-subsidised crop insurance system has had an important position in horticulture sector of Turkey, recently. Crop insurance is one of the possible measures to meet the risks that may occur because of the natural disasters and to ensure continuity of production in horticulture sector of Turkey. Grape is one of the most important horticultural products for export in Turkey. Grape has always played an important agricultural, social and commercial role in Turkey. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the characteristics of grape growers who purchase government-subsidised crop insurance. The data used in this study was collected from grape growers via face to face interview conducted with the help of questionnaire and the data was analyzed as descriptive and inferential statistics. Within the context of the research, 88 growers were interviewed in the 2015 production season. Data obtained was analyzed using Chi-square (χ2) test. In this study, insured and non-insured grape farms were compared in terms of their personal, socioeconomic, technical and structural characteristics, grape growing practices, and their communication and information-seeking behaviors. The results revealed that there is a statistically significant difference between the insured and non-insured grape farms in terms of educational level of farmer, household size, agricultural credit use by farmer, amount of produced grape, type of vineyard, the aim of grape growing, type of irrigation system employed, situation soil testing made by farmers’, information sources about government-subsidised crop insurance of farmer, the participation of farmers in extension activities about grape production, agricultural advisory status of farmers and status of receiving an agricultural support of farmers variables. And, as a result, insurance tied to credit access and technology adaptation provides farmers with a good income and can makes the purchase of crop insurance attractive. Additional, insurance companies and government extension units should be provided further information and awareness studies to growers about government-subsidised crop insurance.
