Mosa Marhij *⁽¹⁾

(1). Directorate of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, Tartous, Syria.

(*Corresponding author: Mosa Marhij. E-Mail: mosa.marhij@gmail.com)

Received: 2/4/2024                Accepted: 1/8/2024

Abstract

The research aimed to demonstrate the impact of some of the studied factors on farmers’ adoption of strawberry cultivation in greenhouses in Tartous Governorate, and their preference over other agricultural crops in the governorate, by relying on measures of central tendency such as averages, percentages, and estimating the Pearson correlation coefficient between production and each of the achievement variables. Education, age, type of tenure (ownership, rent), number of hired workers, selling price per kilogram, farmers’ opinion about the prices at which they sell, statement of opinion on the strawberry crop, and whether strawberries are a main or secondary crop through the use of the statistical analysis program (Spss, 27). The results of the research showed the significance of the variables studied, with the exception of the selling price per kilogram, and the educational attainment variable outperformed all other variables in the results of estimating frequencies and percentages. The most important production problems facing strawberry farmers were low prices, high production requirements, and high transportation costs. While the most important marketing problems facing strawberry growers are the high cost of marketing supplies, transportation fees, and workers, in addition to the short lifespan of the fruits, the control of prices by brokers and intermediaries, and the high risk of not being able to store, the research recommended working to solve the large gap in prices. In Which strawberry farmers in Tartous Governorate Sell, which no longer even cover production costs. and attention to social aspects such as education and training in strawberry cultivation in the studied area, because of its role in developing strawberry cultivation, and working to address the production problems facing strawberry farmers by providing Production requirements at the lowest prices, working to raise the price of the crop by opening the door to export, establishing cooperative societies concerned with perishable products, working to reduce production costs, working to address the marketing problems facing strawberry farmers by establishing special markets for perishable products, and Storage facilities accommodate Surplus production. The trend towards industrialization.

Keywords: strawberries, protected cultivation, Tartous Governorate, production, social factors, Pearson correlation coefficient.   

Full paper in Arabic: PDF