Does Organic Production and Marketing Training Improve the Agricultural Business Skills of Rural Women Farmers? A Case Study From Türkiye

Abstract

The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the training activities provided to the female farmers supplying products to the organic product market in Sürmeli village, Bafra District, Samsun, Türkiye. A survey was used to collect data from female farmers who sell their products in the organic market and other farmers who do not sell their products in the organic market. The full-counting method was used to obtain the data. Within the scope of the research, a survey was administered to all participant farmers twice - before and after the training. The training was provided only to the female farmers producing organic products. When analysing the enterprises, the Kirkpatrick Program Evaluation Model, one-way analysis of variance, and covariance analysis were performed to determine the effectiveness of the training on organic agricultural production and marketing. Comparisons of the scores that measure the total knowledge levels of both production and marketing of organic production revealed that the score in the experimental group was statistically higher than that in the control group, and this difference was due to the training provided to the experimental group (R Squared = 0.633, 0.866). It can be said that among the participant farmers, those having a higher level of knowledge of organic production and marketing issues will carry out agriculture activities more successfully.