Sustainable Agriculture in Turkey: Potential, Obstacles and Recommendations

Year 2019, Volume: 2 Issue: 2, 69 - 73, 01.06.2019

Arzu Seçer , Mutlu Bulut , Mustafa Boğa

Abstract

Natural resources are threatened to meet needing of increased population. Sustainable agricultural production
practices are required to provide activities against global warming, energy use and water scarcity etc. This study is
aim to put current situation and potential of Turkish Agriculture for sustainability, reveal obstacles and present
recommendations. The information collected is presented by strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT)
analysis approach and some recommendations are made. In terms of sustainability Turkey has some strengths (wide
agricultural and ecological zones, biological diversity, high numbers and quality research institutes, increased levels of
education and awareness of producers) and opportunities (supports for organic agriculture and biological control,
New trends towards consuming natural products etc.) for sustainable agriculture. At the same time, there are some
weaknesses (low competitiveness, large numbers of small farmers and wide chemical input use) and threats (lack of
knowledge about sustainability in the society, agricultural subsidies and inexpensive food demand etc.). Government
supports, education and some additional projects can be useful to expand sustainable production systems

Keywords

SWOT analysis, Sustainable agriculture, Turkey

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