 Turkish Agriculture Engineers’ Chamber Chairman Turhan Tuncer warns that although there was no risk of famine, agricultural production being outpaced by the overall population increase marks a major problem. (AA) |
The Turkish Agriculture Engineers’ Chamber is expecting the growth of Turkey’s agriculture production in 2010 to fall beneath the country’s population increase, as is always the case, according to Chamber Chairman Turhan Tuncer.
Tuncer said agriculture has forever had social, economic and political importance in Turkey, creating 25 percent of overall national employment and providing 10 percent of gross domestic product. Speaking at the opening of an agriculture symposium held to celebrate the 165th year of the launch of agriculture education in Turkey, he warned that although there was no risk of famine, the failure of agricultural production to keep up with the overall population increase marked a major problem.
Tuncer said a food shortage never broke out in Turkey even though the country’s population increased from 13.5 million to 73 million between 1927 and 2010 because of the success of agricultural engineers. He also said in recent years wheat, potato, sugar beet and tobacco cultivation drastically decreased in Turkey, pulse and bean cultivation areas greatly shrank, the number of livestock fell from 85 million to 35 million and the per capita meat consumption fell from 10 kilograms to 6.5 kilograms, which has caused the country to need to import meat in order to meet its meat demand.
Stressing that it is unacceptable that Turkey to be left dependent on meat imports, Tuncer requested agricultural subsidies be increased to the level of 1 percent of GDP, the legal level, adding that as long as the appropriate subsidies were provided agricultural production capacity would continuously increase.
Tuncer said in the last two decades the number of farmers fell from 9 million to 6 million, and the 3 million giving up farming have moved to the suburbs and are unemployed. “Therefore, we cannot dub the fall of agriculture labor modernization, nor industrialization.”
Tuncer demanded that the agriculture sector be granted informative, technical and machinery support and he criticized abolishment of the “responsible manager” practice with the new food law. “A lot of engineers were left unemployed due to this change, which also puts food safety and public health at great risk.”
He said with 100 million liras the obligatory responsible manager practice could be reinstated for food businesses.
Tuncer said agriculture has forever had social, economic and political importance in Turkey, creating 25 percent of overall national employment and providing 10 percent of gross domestic product. Speaking at the opening of an agriculture symposium held to celebrate the 165th year of the launch of agriculture education in Turkey, he warned that although there was no risk of famine, the failure of agricultural production to keep up with the overall population increase marked a major problem.
Tuncer said a food shortage never broke out in Turkey even though the country’s population increased from 13.5 million to 73 million between 1927 and 2010 because of the success of agricultural engineers. He also said in recent years wheat, potato, sugar beet and tobacco cultivation drastically decreased in Turkey, pulse and bean cultivation areas greatly shrank, the number of livestock fell from 85 million to 35 million and the per capita meat consumption fell from 10 kilograms to 6.5 kilograms, which has caused the country to need to import meat in order to meet its meat demand.
Stressing that it is unacceptable that Turkey to be left dependent on meat imports, Tuncer requested agricultural subsidies be increased to the level of 1 percent of GDP, the legal level, adding that as long as the appropriate subsidies were provided agricultural production capacity would continuously increase.
Tuncer said in the last two decades the number of farmers fell from 9 million to 6 million, and the 3 million giving up farming have moved to the suburbs and are unemployed. “Therefore, we cannot dub the fall of agriculture labor modernization, nor industrialization.”
Tuncer demanded that the agriculture sector be granted informative, technical and machinery support and he criticized abolishment of the “responsible manager” practice with the new food law. “A lot of engineers were left unemployed due to this change, which also puts food safety and public health at great risk.”
He said with 100 million liras the obligatory responsible manager practice could be reinstated for food businesses.
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