Persistence of the inhabitants of a region to raise pure hair goats: A case study on the province of Burdur in Turkey

Abstract

The objective of this study is to describe the relations between the social, economic and demographic properties of the household heads raising pure hair goats in the province of Burdur where pure hair goats are raised traditionally in Turkey and designate the underlying reasons for the persistence in raising pure hair goats despite all legal restraints. The study material is composed of the data from the surveys conducted with 786 household heads raising pure hair goats in 10 municipal districts of Burdur. The surveys have been conducted between 2005-2007 by the Regional Directorate of Forestry of Isparta. The responses on the surveys composed of 18 questions have been digitalized and transferred to a computer via Microsoft Excel. The statistical analyses have been performed by using the program Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 11.0 upon utilizing non-parametric analysis methods. The statistical test results have been tested at a significance level of 5% (p<0.05). Furthermore, the socio-economic, demographic and traditional properties of household heads raising pure hair goats have been described with the help of tables and graphics. It was demonstrated that there is conformity among the household heads raising pure hair goats in 10 municipal districts of Burdur in terms of the level of education, manner of utilizing pure hair goat milk, land ownership, migration being a shepherd, types of public loan demands and persistence in raising pure hair goats and that there is no conformity in terms of the amount of pure hair goats raised, the income obtained from pure hair goats and other resources, duration of migration, ownership of dry and irrigated land. Furthermore, a relation was detected between the number of pure hair goats raised and the number of family members in 2 provinces; between the number of pure hair goats and the income gained from goats in 4 municipal districts; between the number of pure hair goats and the amount of irrigated agricultural land in 1 municipal district; the number of pure hair goats and utilization of goat milk in 1 municipal district. Descriptive analyses have demonstrated that household heads with a low education level, low income and no agricultural land to use will refuse to utilize the public loans proposed for earning their living via other economic activities and will continue raising pure hair goats. © Medwell Journals, 2010.