Scientific Papers Series Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and Rural Development Vol. 20, Issue 3, 2020 PRINT ISSN 2284-7995, E-ISSN 2285-3952 617 FACTORS AFFECTING THE TURKSIH FARMERS’ DECISION TO QUIT FARMING Berna TÜRKEKUL, Canan ABAY Ege University, Faculty of Agriculture, Agricultural Economics Department, 35100, Bornova, Izmir, Turkey, Phones:90 232 3112720; 90 232 3111440; E-mails: berna.turkekul@ege.edu.tr, canan.abay@ege.edu.tr Corresponding author: berna.turkekul@ege.edu.tr Abstract Agriculture contributes to Turkish economic development by manufacturing essential agricultural products, utilizing a huge portion of the population, trading of agricultural products, making intermediate goods for the other sectors. However, poverty along with deepening gap between input and output prices caused by Turkish agricultural policies implemented in the recent years has pushed farmers to quit farming. As a matter of fact, in 2017 5.4 million worked in agricultural sector, which were 7.7 million people in 2000. Therefore, object of this study was to investigate the factors affecting farmers’ likelihood to quit agriculture. The data was collected by a questionnaire conducted in the selected districts of Izmir and totally 195 farmers are calculated as sample size. Logit regression model was used to determine the factors affecting quitting agriculture. The results show that agricultural subsidy, tenure, education and the size of the farm are the important factors for quitting decision. The question of who will make agricultural production in the future will be on the agenda as long as agriculture loses attractiveness for young people. The situation is no different in a country with a high young population country like Turkey. Hence, agriculture should be encouraged especially for young people with high education and entrepreneurship ability. Key words: exit intention, employment, choice models, rural development INTRODUCTION In each country, agriculture has different conditions, but still contributes to the economies of countries. While the resources are gradually decreasing, supply of healthy and cheap food for the coming generations becomes more important. Therefore, whether it is a developed or a developing country, it is necessary for agriculture and agricultural enterprises to be sustainable. Despite this importance, farmers around the world are aging and young people move away from agriculture. The average age of farmers in Japan is 67 years and 58 years in the USA. More than one third of European farmers are older than 65. All OECD countries have ageing farmers [9]. The situation is similar also in Turkey. In 2000, 4.9 million people aged between 20 and 39 were employed in agriculture. This figure decreased to 3.4 million in 2010 and to 1.5 million in 2016. These figures show us that Turkish farmers are aging and that young people do not prefer to participate in agriculture. Over the last 20 years, rural areas of Turkey are reshaped by an unbroken loss of both farm and nonfarm rural residents. Between 1991 and 2001, a number of 890,173 active farms in Turkey exited from farming. As a result the average farm size raised to 6.1 hectares from 5.9 hectares [6]. After the year 2000, expanding divergence among input and output prices has added to the extending of poverty in rural of Turkey. This was joined by a decline in agricultural lands. Over the most recent 10 years, around 2 million hectares of agricultural land are dropped from cultivation. Likewise, the total agricultural land and plantation areas have diminished. When examining the number of agricultural holdings, as per the outcomes of the 1980, 1991 and 2001 General Agricultural Census, there was an expansion of 25.6% in 1991 regarding 1980 and 8.3% expansion in 2001 contrasted with 1991. While there has dependably been an expansion in absolute number of agricultural holdings in the majority of the three censuses, the quantity of