Farmer Perception of Trees in a Semiarid Agroecological Zone

Trees in upland, semiarid agroecological zones typically require water efficiency due to low rainfall, cold and dry temperatures as in Niğde Province, Central Anatolia, Türkiye. This study quantitatively assessed farmer perception of ecosystem services and production advantage of trees in a semiarid zone. Forty-nine farmers in Niğde Province were surveyed. The survey evaluated two major factors: ecosystem services and production advantage using eleven indicators. The responses were grouped by age, gender, education, district class (rural and urban) and farm settlement (rural and urban) and were analysed by test of association (χ2) at P≤0.05. Most farmers had knowledge of trees in their environment and mainly supported the perspective that trees were important mainly for cultural and provisioning ecosystem services. However, they held the opinion that having trees on their farmer was a production disadvantage in a semiarid agroecological zone. Although there were no gender differences in their perspectives, there were significant difference by age, education, district class and farm settlement. Farmers in this semiarid agroecological zone seemed more interested in trees with evident ecosystem services and production advantage such as improved crop yield, water efficiency, weed and pest management, ease of harvesting as well as reduced overall production cost. By implication, trees with multiple benefits are required if further planting by farmers is to be encouraged for agroecosystem improvement. In addition, tree choice will be based on farmer perception of the benefits of trees for ecosystem services and production advantage and further research to identify and promote trees that benefits the widest range of agroecosystems.