A socio-economic analysis of small ruminant breeders' membership relations and organizational effectiveness

Livestock Producers Organizations have played an important role in sustainable production and rural development. There is a strong relationship between breeders' socio-economics status, membership relations, and organizational success levels. A survey was conducted in the Hatay province in Turkey with 38 small ruminant breeders to investigate organizational responsibilities and satisfaction levels, and to analyze the relationship between their socio-economic status with responsibility and satisfaction. The membership of breeders in any professional organization was found to be 68%, and the most important factor affecting participation in their organizations was bureaucratic reasons. "Basic", "Extended", and "Total" responsibilities of the small ruminant breeders were found to be 16%, 24%, and 20%, respectively, and satisfaction levels were "very dissatisfied", "dissatisfied" and "very dissatisfied", respectively. A positive correlation was found between the total responsibility score and membership period (p<0.05), and a negative correlation was found between total satisfaction score and herd size (p<0.01). Education level, the most important factor affecting breeders' responsibility, was related to four of the six responsibility components (p<0.01); whereas herd size, the most important factor affecting breeders' satisfaction, was related to three of the eight satisfaction components (p<0.05). These results indicated that training programs must be arranged to change the attitudes of small ruminant breeders and also management activities of the organization should be closely followed by the breeders to minimize or to prevent some of the management errors and failures.