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Study on Economic Evaluation of Open Field Squash Production in Turkey |
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SUMMARY This study was conducted in two steps. At the first step, the data in relation to the world’s and Turkey’s squash production were obtained from the literature. In the second step, the data were obtained form the squash growers. The world squash production is about 8.019.000 tons and China is the leading country. Turkey is the fifth squash grower country in the world. According to the last 10 year statistics the squash production in Turkey is between 255.000 and 310.000 tons. This production distributed among the agricultural region as follows: 43 % in Mediterranean, 19 % Aegean and 13 % in Marmara region respectively. Comparing with other fruits and vegetables, the export of squash is not important. The structure and economic situation of 60 enterprises were determined through questionnaire from Adana, Konya, İstanbul, İzmir, Bursa, Zonguldak provinces where squash is widely grown. The enterprises mean land size is about 41.24 decar, 6.84 % of that land is devoted for squash production. The yield of squash is about 2271 kg/decar. The labour-machine force cost takes 39.5 %, material expenses 28.5 % and general expenses 32 % of the production costs. In the squash production 1.05 hour tractor force and 71.42 hours man-force per decar is needed. The most important production and marketing problems are, combating with pest and diseases and the difficulty of the marketing of the product. |
| Keywords : Marketing, Costs, Squash, Production, Turkey. |