The Evaluation of Agricultural Based Investment Grant Projects Within the Scope of Rural Development Supports: The Case of Aydın Province

The rural development program named "Rural Development Investment Support Program (RDISP)” has been begun to be implemented by the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock since 2006. The main purpose of this implementation is to raise the level of income in rural areas by taking into account the protection of the natural resources and the environment and to support the small and medium sized enterprises with grant projects in order to ensure the integration of agricultural industry and agriculture based industry. Within this context, it is aimed to benefit effectively from the funds given within the scope of rural development in the European Union (EU) harmonization process and to improve the potential of project implementation. An evaluation was made about the project proposals proposed to the Aydın Directorate of Provincial Food, Agriculture and Livestock between the years of 2006–2014. In this study, 102 projects were selected by random sampling method from the total 340 projects proposed during these years and face–to–face interviews were made with the executives of the selected investment projects. The findings obtained from the study results suggest that the investment projects proposed under the RDISP in Aydın province are suitable projects in terms of investor experience, provincial production potential, raw material provision and marketing opportunities.