The decline in agricultural production areas in Turkey continues at full speed. According to the numbers announced by the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock, the agricultural production areas declined by 36 billion square feet to 2.5 trillion square feet.
The decline has been continuous over the years but this year’s decline was by far the sharpest. A significant development was the re-allocation of these fields from field crops to fruit and vegetable production areas. The area for field crops declined from 2 trillion square feet to 1.7 trillion square feet whereas the vegetable production areas have increased from 68 billion square feet to 86 billion square feet and the fruit production areas have increased from 323 billion square feet 360 billion square feet in the last 30 years.
The number of growers also declined dramatically from 2002 to 2017. The number of growers declined from 2.5 million to 2.1 million. These numbers overall are concerning for the future of agriculture sector in Turkey. These numbers for growers can be actually inflated as some busınesses register as growers to take advantage of different incentives offered by the government.
One positive development in this period was the jump in organic and greenhouse production. The number of products grown with organic production methods increased from 150 in 2002 to 225 in 2016. Additionally the number of growers who work in organic agriculture increased significantly from 12,500 to 68,000. The production numbers increased for organically grown products from 310,000 tons to 2,5 million tons.
Another jump has occurred in greenhouse production where the greenhouse production areas have risen from 5.7 billion square feet in 2002 to 8 billion square feet in 2017. The production numbers also increased in the same period from 4.2 million tons to 7.8 million tons. These figures indicate that the growers have increased their competency in value-added and high quality production which also gave them a better position in export markets.
Source: Dunya