Exploring and Comparing Risk Attitudes of Organic and Non-Organic Hazelnut Producers in Samsun Province of Turkey

Abstract

The purposes of this research were to compare the attitudes to risk of organic and non-organic hazelnut producers and to determine the additional barriers to their attitudes to risk in relation to conversion to organic agriculture in Samsun province of Turkey. The Equally Likely Certainty Equivalent (ELCE) model was used, based on the data collected from 64 randomly selected non-organic producers and all organic hazelnut producers (39). Research results revealed that organic hazelnut producers were more risk-taking than non-organic producers. It was also found that the variables of education level of operators, farm income, total capital, time allocated outside the farm, farm land area, size of hazelnut orchard, number of hazelnut plots and total information score were other barriers for conversion to organic hazelnut production, in addition to the producers' risk attitudes.