THE PENETRATION OF CAPITAL INTO TURKEY’S AGRICULTURE AND ITS AMBIVALENCES

Yıl 2025, Cilt: 16 Sayı: 1, 101 - 116, 31.01.2025

Cihan Cinemre

Öz

This work deals with the capital’s penetration into Turkey’s agriculture particularly in the era following the 2000s. The subject matter is examined in terms of the emergence of inequality in the ownership of the land, the commodification of seed, the consolidation of the rule of retail monopolies over the circulation of agricultural products, and the change in the pattern of cultivation reflecting the international division of labour in agriculture. It is asserted that the unity of the laws of motion of capital with the state coercion impelled these changes. It is emphasised in the study that a crucial moment of capital’s mode of engagement with agriculture is its shunning from investing in direct agricultural production, which in turn is postulated as one of the fundamental causes of ambivalence internal to their relationship.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Agriculture, Ambivalence, Commodification, Agri-business, Mode of production, Proletarianization

SERMAYENİN TÜRKİYE TARIMINA NÜFUZU VE GETİRDİĞİ MÜPHEMLİKLER

Öz

Bu çalışma sermayenin özellikle 2000’li yıllardan sonraki dönemde Türkiye tarımına nüfuz etmesiyle ilgilidir. Araştırma konusu, toprak mülkiyetinde ortaya çıkan eşitsizlik, tohumun metalaşması, tarımsal ürünün dolaşımı üzerinde perakende tekellerinin hâkimiyetinin pekişmesi ve tarımsal üretimdeki uluslararası işbölümü doğrultusunda yetiştiricilik örüntüsündeki değişim bakımından ele alınmıştır. Sermayenin hareket kanunlarıyla devlet zorunun birliğinin bu dönüşümü harekete geçirdiği ileri sürülmüştür. Çalışmada, sermayenin tarıma yönelik girişimlerindeki belirleyici bir uğrağın, onun doğrudan tarımsal üretime yatırılmasında yaşanan tereddüt olduğu vurgulanmıştır. Sermayenin bu tutumu onun tarımla ilişkisine içerilmiş müphemliğin temel nedenlerinden biri olarak koyutlanmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Tarım, Müphemlik, Metalaşma, Tarım endüstrisi, Üretim tarzı, Proleterleşme

Kaynakça

• Açikgöz, N., Abay, C., & Açikgöz, N. (2010). Progresses in the Turkish seed industry. In N. P. Louwaars (Ed.), Seed policy, legislation and law: Widening a narrow focus (pp. 155-163). Boca Raton: CRC Press.
• Alford, M. (2020). Antagonistic governance in South African fruit global production networks: A neo-gramscian perspective. Global Networks, 20, 42-64. doi: 10.1111/glob.12223
• Alford, M., & Phillips, N. (2018). The political economy of state governance in global production networks: Change, crisis and contestation in the South African fruit sector. Review of International Political Economy, 25, 98-121. doi:10.1080/09692290.2017.1423367
• Akram-Lodhi, H., Kay, C., & Borras Jr., S. M. (2009). The political economy of land and the agrarian question in an era of neoliberal globalization. In A. H. Akram-Lodhi & C. Kay (Eds.), Peasants and globalization: Political economy, rural transformation and the agrarian question (pp. 214-238). London: Routledge.
• Araghi, F. (2009). The invisible hand and the visible foot: Peasants, dispossession and globalization. In A. H. Akram-Lodhi & C. Kay (Eds.), Peasants and globalization: Political economy, rural transformation and the agrarian (pp. 111-147). London: Routledge.
• Aydın, Z. (2016). Çağdaş tarım sorunu ve yeni köylülük. ODTÜ Gelişme Dergisi, 43, 43-63.
• Bagchi, A. K. (2009). Nineteenth century imperialism and structural transformation in colonized countries. In A. H. Akram-Lodhi & C. Kay (Eds.), Peasants and globalization: Political economy, rural transformation and the agrarian (pp. 83-110). London: Routledge.
• Barrientos, S. & Visser, M. (2012). South African Horticulture: Opportunities and challenges for economic and social upgrading in value chains. Capturing the Gains Working Paper 12.
• Bayraktar, U., Beyhan, B., Kiper, N., Yoloğlu, A. C., & Erkılıç H. (2015). Akdeniz Bölgesi’nde kentleşme sürecinin kırsal bleşenleri: 70 yıl sonra Erdemli. Planlama, 25, 134-146. doi: 10.5505/planlama.2015.96977
• Berndt, C. (2018). Uneven development, commodity chains and the agrarian question. Progress in Human Geography, Virtual Issue, 1-14.
• Bernstein, H. (2010). Class dynamics of agrarian change. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.
• Biles, J. J., Brehm, K., Enrico, A., Kiendl, C., Morgan, E., Teachout, A., & Vasquez, K. (2007). Globalization of food retailing and transformation of supply networks: Consequences for small-scale agricultural producers in Southeastern Mexico. Journal of Latin American Geography, 6(2), 55-75.
• Boratav, K. (2009). Tarımsal fiyatlar, istihdam ve köylülüğün kaderi. In Alpaslan Işıklı’ya armağan (pp. 115-131). Ankara: Mülkiyeliler Birliği Vakfı Yayınları.
• Boyd, W. (2003). Wonderful potencies? Deep structure and the problem of monopoly in agricultural biotechnology. In R. A. Schurman & D. D. Takahashi Kelso (Eds.), Engineering trouble: Biotechnology and Its discontents (pp. 24-63). Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Buell, R. L. (1928). The native problem in Africa: Volume I. New York: The Macmillan Company.
• Chayanov, A. (1991). The theory of peasant co-operatives. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.
• Coe, N. M. & Hess, M. (2005). The internationalization of retailing: Implications for supply network restructuring in East Asia and Eastern Europe. Journal of Economic Geography, 5, 449-473. doi: 10.1093/jeg/lbh068
• Cronon, W. (1991). Nature’s metropolis: Chicago and the Great West. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
• Crowley, K., & Elliot, J. R. (2012). Earthquake disasters and resilience in the Global North: Lessons from New Zealand and Japan. The Geographical Journal, 178, 208-215. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-4959.2011.00453.x
• Çelik, C. (2017). Kırsal dönüşüm ve metalaşan yaşamlar: Soma Havzası’nda işçileşme süreçleri ve sınıf ilişkileri. Praksis, 43, 785-810.
• Değirmenci, E., & Karaçimen, E. (2019). Bir bardak çayın serüveni: Meta zinciri analizinden hareketle çayın ekonomi politiği. Mülkiye Dergisi, 43(1), 139-173.
• Delaney, C. (2001). Tohum ve Toprak: İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları.
• Durand, C., & Milberg, W. (2020). Intellectual monopoly in global value chains. Review of International Political Economy, 27, 404-429. doi: 10.1080/09692290.2019.1660703
• Eren, Z. C. (2017). Köylülüğün itibar kaybı: Bakırçay Havzası dağ köylerinden kadınların anlatıları ve kırsal dönüşüm. Praksis, 43, 811-838.
• FAOSTAT. (n. d.) Pesticides use. Food and Agriculture Organization. Retrieved from https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/RP
• Friedmann, H. (2006). Focusing on agriculture: A comment on Henry Bernstein’s ‘Is there an agrarian question in the 21st Century?’ Canadian Journal of Development Studies, 27, 461-465. doi: 10.1080/02255189.2006.9669167
• Gago, V. (2017). Neoliberalism from below. Durham: Duke University Press.
• Gibbon, P. & Ponte, S. (2005). Trading down: Africa, value chains, and the global economy. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
• Gisselquist, D., Nash, J., & Pray, C. (2002). Deregulating the transfer of agricultural technology: Lessons from Bangladesh, India, Turkey, and Zimbabwe. The World Bank Research Observer, 17, 237-265. doi: 10.1093/wbro/17.2.237
• Harriss, J., & Harriss, B. (1979). Development studies. Progress in Human Geography, 3(4), 576-584.
• Hauter, W. (2012). Foodopoly: The battle over the future of food and farming in America. New York: The New Press. Howard, P. H. (2021). Concentration and power in the food system: Who controls what we eat? London: Bloomsbury Academic.
• IMF. (n. d.) Letter of intent for stand-by agreement, December 9, 1999. International Monetary Fund. Retrieved from https://www.imf.org/external/np/loi/1999/120999.htm
• Juma, C. (1989). The gene hunters: Biotechnology and the scramble for seeds. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Kalaitzandonakes, N., & Bjornson, B. (1997). Vertical and horizontal coordination in the agro-biotechnology industry: Evidence and implications. Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, 29, 129-139. doi: 10.1017/S1074070800029187
• Kautsky, K. (1988). The agrarian question: In two volumes. London: Zwan Publications.
• Kazak, E. Ö., Koçak, İ. H., Özaktaş, E., Kocaman, E., Kurdoğlu, B., & Özkan, N. (2022). Turkish Competition Authority’s Final Report on the Evaluation of Fast-moving Consumption Goods Retailing Sector. Ankara: RK.
• Kloppenburg Jr., J. R. (2004). First the seed: The political economy of plant biotechnology, 1492-2000. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.
• Lenin, V. I. (1977). The development of capitalism in Russia. In Collected works: Volume 3 (pp. 21-607). Moscow: Progress Publishers.
• Levins, R. and Lewontin, R. (2009). The dialectical biologist. Delhi: Aakar Books.
• Lewontin, R. (2000). The maturing of capitalist agriculture: Farmer as proletarian. In F. Magdoff, J. B. Foster, & F. H. Buttel (Eds.), Hungry for profit: The agribusiness threat to farmers, food, and the environment (pp. 93-107). New York: Monthly Review Press.
• Luxemburg, R. (2003). The accumulation of capital. London: Routledge.
• Magdoff, F., Foster, J. B., & Buttel, F. H. (2000). An overview. In F. Magdoff, J. B. Foster, & F. H. Buttel (Eds.), Hungry for profit: The agribusiness threat to farmers, food, and the environment (pp. 7-21). New York: Monthly Review Press.
• Mamdani, M. (1987). Extreme but not exceptional: Towards an analysis of the agrarian question in Uganda. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 14, 191-225. doi: 10.1080/03066158708438327
• Marsden, T., & Wrigley, N. (1995). Regulation, retailing, and consumption. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 27, 1899-1912. doi: 10.1068/a271899
• Marx, K. (1982). Capital: Volume I. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
• Marx, K. (1991). Capital: Volume III. London: Penguin Books.
• Marx, K. (1943). The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd.
• Middendorf, G., Skladny, M., Ransom, E., & Busch, L. (2000). New agricultural biotechnologies: The struggle for democratic choice. In F. Magdoff, J. B. Foster, & F. H. Buttel (Eds.), Hungry for profit: The agribusiness threat to farmers, food, and the environment (pp. 107-125). New York: Monthly Review Press.
• Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (n. d.) Sulama alanlarında arazi düzenlenmesine dair tarım reform kanunu. Retreived from https://www.mevzuat.gov.tr/mevzuat?MevzuatNo=3083&MevzuatTur=1&MevzuatTertip=5
• Miran, B. (2005). Tarımsal yapı ve üretim. In F. Yavuz (Ed.), Türkiye’de tarım (pp. 9-43). Ankara: Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
• Moore, J. W. (2015). Capitalism in the web of life: Ecology and the accumulation of capital. London: Verso.
• Murphy, S., Lilliston, B., & Lake, M. B. (2005). WTO agreement on agriculture: A decade of dumping. Minneapolis: IATP.
• Murray, W. E., & Overton, J. (2016). Peripheries of neoliberalism: Impacts, resistance and retroliberalism as reincarnation. In S. Springer, K. Birch, & J. MacLeavy (Eds.), The handbook of neoliberalism (pp. 422-432). New York: Routledge.
• Official Journal (n. d.) Toprak koruma ve arazi kullanımını kanununda değişiklik yapılması hakkında kanun. Retrieved from https://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/eskiler/2014/05/20140515-1.htm
• Özalp, B., & Ören, M. N. (2023). Political economy of input-output markets of groundnut: A case from the groundnut value chain of Turkey. Journal of Agrarian Change, 24, 1-28. doi: 10.1111/joac.12568
• Özcan, G. B. (2008). Surviving through transplantation and cloning: The Swiss Migros hybrid, Migros-Türk. In C. Smith, B. McSweeney, & R. Fitzgerald (Eds.), Remaking management: Between global and local (pp. 181-205). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Özkaya, T. (2007). Tohumda tekelleşme ve etkileri. Tarım Ekonomisi Dergisi, 13(1), 39-48.
• Özuğurlu, M. (2011). Küçük köylülüğe sermaye kapanı. Ankara: Nota Bene Yayınları.
• Pagano, U. (2014). The crisis of intellectual monopoly capitalism. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 38(6), 1409-1429.
• Patnaik, U. & Patnaik, P. (2017). A theory of imperialism. New York: Columbia University Press. Petrol-iş (1988). Year book for 1988. İstanbul: Petrol-iş Yayın.
• Pingali, P. L., & Traxler, G. (2002). Changing locus of agricultural research: Will the poor benefit from biotechnology and privatization Trends? Food Policy, 27(3), 223-238.
• Ponte, S. (2002). The ‘latte revolution? Regulation, markets and consumption in the global coffee Chain. World Development, 30, 1099-1122. doi: 10.1016/S0305-750X(02)00032-3
• Puleo, T. J., & Sivak, H. (2013). Introduction: the ambivalence of catastrophe. The Geographical Review, 103(4), 458-468.
• Reardon, T., & Berdegué, J. A. (2002). The rapid rise of supermarkets in Latin America: Challenges and opportunities for development. Development Policy Review, 20, 371-388. doi: 10.1111/1467-7679.00178
• Robinson, W. I. (2008). Latin America and global capitalism. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press. Schwentesius, R., & Gómez, M. A. (2002). Supermarkets in Mexico: Impacts on horticulture systems. Development Policy Review, 20, 487-502. doi: 10.1111/1467-7679.00185
• Seed law of the Republic of Turkey, Main Law no: 553. (2006). Retrieved from https://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/tur68525E.pdf
• Selwyn, B. (2016). Global value chains and human development: A class-relational framework. Third World Quarterly, 37, 1768-1786. doi: 10.1080/01436597.2016.1156484
• TAGEM (General Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policies). (2018). Gübre sektör politika belgesi: 2018-2022. Ankara: Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
• Taşdoğan, B., & Ağdemir Z. (2019). Kapitalizm, devlet ve köylü: Gaziantep köylerinde ampirik bir çalışma. Politik Ekonomik Kuram, 3(2), 289-337.
• Teixeira, T. (2024). Variegated forms of corporate capture: The state, MNCs, and the dark side of strategic coupling. Global Networks, 24, 1-17. doi: 10.1111/glob.12433
• TİGEM (Tarım İşletmeleri Genel Müdürlüğü). (2023). 2022 yılı tohumculuk sektör raporu. Ankara: Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
• Tups, G., & Dannenberg, P. (2023). Supplying lead firms, intangible assets and power in global value chains: Explaining governance in the fertilizer chain. Global Networks, 23, 772-791. doi: 10.1111/glob.12431
• TURKSTAT. (2007). Results of general agricultural census agricultural holdings (household) Survey, 2001. Ankara: Turkish Statistical Institute.
• TURKSTAT. (2008). Agricultural holdings structure survey, 2006. Ankara: Turkish Statistical Institute.
• TURKSTAT. (2012). The results of household labour force survey. Ankara: Turkish Statistical Institute.
• TURKSTAT. (2014). The results of household labour force survey. Ankara: Turkish Statistical Institute.
• TURKSTAT. (2018). Agricultural holding structure survey, 2016. Ankara: Turkish Statistical Institute.
• TURKSTAT. (2023a). Labour force statistics. Ankara: Turkish Statistical Institute.
• TURKSTAT. (2023b). Agricultural land and forest area, 1988-2022. Ankara: Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. TURKSTAT. (2023c). Oil seeds, 1990-2022. Ankara: Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
• TURKSTAT. (2023d). Cereals, 1990-2022. Ankara: Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
• TURKSTAT. (2023e). Production of fruits, beverage and spice crops (for selected products) 2001-2022. Ankara: Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
• TURKSTAT. (2023f). Production of vegetables (for selected products) 2001-2022. Ankara: Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
• TURKSTAT. (2023g). Stone fruits, 1988-2022. Ankara: Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
• TURKSTAT. (2023h). Pome Fruits, 1988-2022. Ankara: Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
• TURKSTAT. (2023i). Nuts, 1988-2022. Ankara: Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
• TURKSTAT. (2023j). Citrus fruits, 1988-2022. Ankara: Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
• Watkins, K. (1991). Agriculture and food security in the GATT Uruguay Round. Review of African Political Economy, 50, 38-50. doi: 10.1080/03056249108703887
• Werner, M. (2016). Global production networks and uneven development: Exploring geographies of devaluation, disinvestment, and exclusion. Geography Compass, 10, 457-469. doi: 10.1111/gec3.12295 Werner, M. & Bair, J. (2019). Global value chains and uneven development: A disarticulations perspective. In S. Ponte, G. Gereffi, & G. Raj-Reichert (Eds.), Handbook on global value chains (pp. 183-198). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
• Wilson, G., &, Rigg, J. (2003). ‘Post-productivist’ agricultural regimes and the South: Discordant concepts? Progress in Human Geography, 27, 681-707. doi: 10.1191/0309132503ph450oa