Turkey, with its 8 million agricultural population, is by far ahead of the European countries in terms of agricultural population density. This dense agricultural population of Turkey is also directly reflected in the number of agricultural enterprises. Here, I would like to draw your attention to a point, although there have been studies on land consolidation in the last 10 years, unfortunately the picture is in a worse situation than it seems. In short, the breadth of agricultural holdings has decreased even more.
While the number of agricultural holdings has been decreased over time in the member countries of the European Union, the breadth of agricultural holdings has been increased, the opposite has been the case in Turkey.
The size of agricultural enterprises is closely related to inputs such as modernization, fertilizer and irrigation in agriculture, as well as production capacity. As a result of the shrinkage of agricultural enterprises, significant economies of scale problems arise and production tends towards decreasing yields.
If we look at the types of agricultural enterprises in Turkey, first of all, we can say that animal husbandry in Turkey is an activity that is mostly done together with plant production and complements plant production. In this integrity, animal husbandry is a side activity for agricultural enterprises, a way of creating additional income. While plant and animal production activities produce inputs for each other, they provide external economies and field economies. Executing different activities within the same business allows for the spread of risk, providing cash flow , stability in income and reduction of fixed costs per unit.
According to TUIK data, 65% of agricultural enterprises are engaged in both plant production and animal husbandry. 34% are engaged in plant production and 1% in animal husbandry.
Although, in Article 6 of the Land Consolidation Implementation Regulation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, “In order to establish viable businesses in the agricultural sector and to ensure the rational use of agricultural lands, the parcel sizes should be formed in optimum dimensions, the existing parcel pattern should be adapted to the requirements of inter-plot transportation, modern irrigation and agricultural mechanization techniques. for reorganization and, if necessary, in-field development services; The project area is determined by the decision of the Council of Ministers for land consolidation, optionally upon the consent of those who own more than half of the land and make up more than half of the number of owners, upon the request of the Ministry or the boards, and not optionally, considering the public interest. Although it has been expressed, the concept of optimum measure cannot be formed for many reasons. These;
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- The majority of agricultural enterprises in Turkey are not of sufficient size, and the agricultural lands have become very fragmented and cannot be cultivated efficiently. Disorders in the agricultural structure due to fragmentation and disorganization not only have a negative effect on yield, but also make it difficult to take efficiency-enhancing measures and cause higher costs.
- Some of the agricultural enterprises, which are in shortage of capital or labor, cannot cultivate all of the lands, and some of them work through tenancy and/or sharecropping. This situation causes the lands to be fragmented in terms of use. In addition, those who live in the cities and give some or all of the land in the village to the tenant and/or sharecropper are also influential in the fragmentation. In addition, "splitting by inheritance and succession" and "splitting through shares and divisional sales " are formed. Apart from these, although less effective; " Disintegration due to geographical and topographical location ", " fragmentation through expropriations for various purposes " are also encountered.
- Insufficient land size of the enterprises increases the transportation and transportation losses in the enterprises and thus the cost. As a result, farmers cannot give due importance to their lands, cannot find an environment to apply modern inputs and cannot create capital accumulation. Infrastructure services such as roads, water, drainage and leveling for the pieces of land in these enterprises within the determined structure become difficult and the cost is high.
As such, as I stated in my previous articles, which should be solved first in agriculture, regional larger-scale studies should be carried out with the intense field support of the relevant Ministry and provincial and district organizations, and even under the leadership of TİGEM. By educating our farmers and supporting them in cooperatives, it should be ensured that the quality of production and lower input prices are ensured.
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Serkan SEZEN