The research was conducted in the prefecture of Evros aiming to examine the attitudes, opinions and perceptions of farmers on the main problems they confront and confine the livestock development in the prefecture. It comprises a sociological survey carried out using a structured questionnaire and employing the method of personal interviews. The sampling method was the simple random sampling and the analysis of the survey data was carried out via descriptive statistics, Friedman's test and factor analysis. The results indicate that livestock farming in the prefecture is declining and this is mainly due to the impact of the economic crisis and the outbreak of the epidemic crisis. Livestock farmers show confidence towards public services and they are willing to be informed about the disease prevention and hygiene conditions. They also feel that they do not participate in subsidized programs due to the economic crisis, the lack of capital to cover their own participation and bureaucracy issues.
Livestock farming plays nowadays a leading role in the economies of several
countries attracting large investments
The development of livestock farming is not only about infrastructure, equipment
and the genetic improvement of livestock, but also concerns the behaviour of
livestock farmers regarding animal husbandry, as well as their knowledge of
zootechnical management and the improvement of trust relationships with public
veterinary services
Proper and timely information of the livestock farmers of the Evros prefecture, at
the time of the outbreak of the epizootic crisis, regarding the symptoms of the
diseases and their consequences would result in gathering and disseminating vital
information for protecting their herds and limiting the spread of diseases. In addition,
timely information would have supressed rumours - which were non-existent – which
created panic and confusion and made it difficult for state authorities to control and
restrict the herds, activate emergency response units and provide specific activity
information (for example, compulsory encroachment for as long as the restrictive
measures were in force). At the same time, the level of education of livestock farmers
in the prefecture remains low that makes the development of livestock farming
difficult to compete directly with foreign markets and especially, those of the
neighbouring "cheap" market of Bulgaria. For this reason, it is imperative that the
livestock farmers in the prefecture to continue their training and education, as it is
generally accepted that optimized production of quality products depends on the
knowledge and ability of the farmers. Modern necessities require informed and
responsible livestock farmers, in control of their farms and capable to manage them
in the most appropriate and profitable way
Lack of communication skills confines the improvement of the information
services provided
Bearing in mind the aforementioned, the objective of the study is to capture farmers' views on a range of issues related to the economic situation of their farms and offer policy makers the effective means to handle the problems and the way farmers communicate. More specifically, the study examines the impact of the economic crisis on livestock farming, the interest of livestock farmers to use subsidized programs to confront the crisis, the communication methods from which they choose to be informed, as well as individual livestock issues they are interest in. The next section provides the methodological steps taken in the study, followed by the main results in the third section. Section four discusses the results of the study and concludes. 2
The population under study consisted of livestock farmers in the Evros prefecture
and particularly farmers from two out of the six municipalities of the prefecture,
Didimoticho and Orestiada. Primary data were gathered through a quantitative survey
(structured questionnaire) to livestock farmers in the prefecture, by means of the
simple random sampling method. According to the livestock census (late 2015) from
the Directorate of Agricultural Economics and Veterinary in Orestiada, there were a
total of 30,072 sheep and goats in 473 livestock farms, 15,250 of which were bred in
the Municipality of Didymoteicho and 14,822 in the Municipality of Orestiada,
primarily for milk production
Cattle Goats Sheep and goats Pigs
Decrease Stable
This section presents the results of the study. Regarding the socio-economics of the respondents, the majority of the farmers were men (77.1%), who had the main responsibility for the farm decisions and operation. They had mostly low educational level, since 54.1% received only primary education, or not even that. More than half of them (57.7%) were aged over 51 years old and 83.5% were married with two or three children. Furthermore, 61.2% of livestock farmers had dairy farming, the 18.8% had farms for meat production and 20.0% had mixed livestock farms. As concerns the type of farming and the number of animals, most farms comprised of sheep and goats with 149.87 animals on average, followed by goats with an average animal per farm of 106.15 and sheep with 102.78 animals on average (Table 1).
More than half of the breeders (55.9%) have reduced their livestock and 64.1% have seen their income shrink. This has been exacerbated by both the economic crisis and the outbreak of zoonoses along with the low demand for livestock products. The production cost was most affected by the economic crisis (70.0% of livestock farmers), while 46.4% of them argued that the demand for their products appears to have declined to a very low level after the emergence of economic crisis (Table 3).
Despite the rising feeding costs and even more the production costs, the 57.1% of livestock farmers were not willing to join a subsidized program (Table 4). The disincentives for their participation to a subsidized program were examined via the non-parametric Friedman's test (Table 5). According to the results, the main deterrent, averaging 5.20, is the economic crisis, followed by the lack of capital to cover own stake, with a median of 5.10. An important factor, with a rating of 4.11, is the farmer’s age. It is worth mentioning that elderly farmers are now willing to join time-consuming subsidized programs, which at the time of the crisis involve some economic risk.
Bureaucracy Lack of capital to cover own stake Lack of information for the terms and conditions Late payments Start of the economic crisis Age
In addition, the views on the lack of interest of farmers in joining a subsidized
program were gauged through a multivariate statistical analysis using the Factor
Analysis method. The aim was to replace the variables with new inconsistent factors,
fewer in number. The analysis highlighted two factors explaining a total of 75.71%
of the total variance and a value of Keiser-Meyer-Olkin index of 0.835. It is
suggested that the KMO should be greater than 0.80, however, values higher than
0.60 are considered tolerable
As concerns issues for which livestock farmers would like additional information, the non-parametric Friedman's test was applied (Table 7). The results denote that the most important issue, with a rating of 5.89, is the transmission and prevention of diseases, followed by the improvement of the sanitary conditions in the farm, with a 4.94 ranking average. It is noteworthy that respondents were not interested in being informed about innovative ways of producing livestock products, education and training and organic farming, ranking them in the last positions. This may be due to the small size of livestock farms in the prefecture that do not have high returns, as well as the age and educational level of farmers, which inhibits the adoption of innovative practices.
The classification of the media and the bodies chosen by livestock farmers to obtain information on livestock farming issues was emerged after the application of the non-parametric Friedman test. Table 8 illustrates that the main source of information was the veterinary services, with an average rank of 8.48, followed by television with a rank of 7.09, whilst in the last place was the municipality authorities, with an average of 3.79. It is noteworthy that in a very low position (4.02 ranking average) were the meetings/conferences that farmers do not attend, either because they do not have time or because they do not have the appropriate educational level to attend.
It should be noted that even though the cooperatives are considered a moderately important player, it is in fact a significant information authority for livestock farmers, bearing in mind that the members of the local livestock cooperative have only sheep and goats, and therefore only these members have an opinion for the quantity and type of information provided.
Finally, as far as who farmers trust to obtain information initiatives on agricultural and livestock issues, the results showed that the Directorate of Agricultural Economics and Veterinary Affairs comes first and second the cooperatives, while there is little trust in information from the municipalities. It is worth mentioning that 23.5% of the respondents also want the University to be involved in their information process, since they consider that its departments are directly related to the agricultural and livestock sector in the prefecture (Table 9). The objective of the present study was to explore a range of issues that concern livestock farmers and to propose a more effective communication strategy between livestock farmers and stakeholders. Particular attention needs to be paid to supporting the livestock farming, as it is one of the most important economic sectors in Greece and in the EU. The sector provides income to thousands of rural families and it is a significant element for rural development, particularly in mountainous and lessfavoured areas.
The results of the study imply that most livestock farmers do not have the basic education, either because they have completed only primary school or they have gone through only a few classes in primary school, and their occupation with livestock farming is mostly the result of lacking the qualifications and alternative professional solutions, with relatively old farmers' ages. Concerning the type of farming and the number of animals, it appears that most farms, but not with the largest number of animals per farm, are sheep farms. Larger farms involve mainly sheep and goats, but they consist a very small number in the wider area. According to Koutsou, et al., (2013), mainly small herds are kept in the prefecture that do not exceed 200 to 300 sheep and goats demonstrating the prevalence of small to medium sized dairy farms.
Intriguingly, livestock farmers expressed a distrust towards their involvement in
subsidized programs, which is largely due to the economic crisis and the lack of
capital. In addition, it can be attributed to the lack of clear and reliable information
on the terms and conditions of implementing such programs and the lack of
confidence in state authorities. The latter, combined with the lack of trained livestock
farmers, comprise an impediment to the development of livestock farming in the
prefecture
The main sources of information pertain to the veterinary services, television and
private veterinarians, as they are the only convenient means to get informed in the
prefecture. The lack of information and support mechanisms isolates more the
livestock farms regardless of their size and production characteristics
Finally, livestock farmers in the prefecture trust the Directorate of Agricultural Economics and Veterinary Affairs to take up information initiatives on specific livestock issues and have less confidence in the cooperative and the Department of the University located in the city of Orestiada. Although the University is considered as a reliable knowledge transmitter, there is no such trust on behalf of the farmers, and this may be due either to the lack of specialists in zootechnics or to the lack of trust-building relationships between members of the university community and the farmers.
Conclusively, it is worth to mention that there is a declining trend for livestock farming and there is a need to support it. Initiatives can be undertaken by several stakeholders but, in particular, by the Directorate of Agricultural Economy and Veterinary that is trusted by the local livestock farmers. These initiatives should be promoted through local TV stations, posters and brochures, through the various public services and focus mainly on funding programs for farm modernization, disease transmission and improved hygiene in their farms. Livestock farmers should also be trained in the use of information and communication technologies. Using these tools, and especially internet services, the information of livestock farmers may be strengthened. Internet-based information can constantly gain ground over traditional media (television, radio print media) since it can enhance the two-way communication between knowledge-producing people such as Universities, Institutes, research centres and disseminates this knowledge to livestock farmers.