Economic and National Development Policy: Agriculture

Our country has long been unable to progress from the status of a developing country to that of a developed one. Economic and national development policy is a matter of national choice. Despite being a very important agricultural country and possessing vast lands in this field, our country has never been able to reach the level it deserves in terms of agricultural economy.

Yet, in the early years of the Republic, we became one of the world's important countries in the agricultural economy, and significant steps were taken in industrialization by exporting agricultural products. In 1925, one of the early years of the Republic, we relieved our farmers of a very heavy tax burden by abolishing the tithe (aşar) tax, which accounted for more than a quarter of the budget.

However, we were a country that had just emerged from war. Despite the burden of paying installments on the Ottoman Public Debt (Düyun-u Umumiye) on one hand, and the efforts toward industrialization and the creation of a national bourgeoisie on the other, a very important economic and political choice was made to establish a sustainable agricultural economy. In fact, to get our share in the global process, we must make a choice regarding the agricultural economy once again, alongside industrialization.

Although nearly one-third of Turkey's population lives in agricultural or rural areas, its share in the national income is only between 5 and 7 percent. Indeed, agriculture was the sector with the lowest income in 2025. Agriculture has the lowest share among entrepreneurial incomes at 2.8 percent. Even this situation shows that as the share of agriculture in the national economy decreases, the import of agricultural products increases. Yet, until the 2000s, we were a country with an export surplus in agriculture. The fact that the agricultural sector needs support due to its nature is accepted by many countries, and various support and protection measures are implemented. In integration with the European Union, we could have highlighted agriculture as a sector that needs to be developed first and become an indispensable country in agriculture.

The efforts of countries to increase their production to gain nutritional and competitive power have led to a gradual increase in the intensive use of inputs in agriculture. The fact that food security and poverty problems have not been solved in our country has delayed the spread of good agricultural practices.

The agricultural sector has an important place in the economic life of all countries, regardless of their level of development.

The agricultural sector, which was the locomotive of the Turkish economy from the founding of the Republic until the 1980s, began to decline due to the liberalization and transition to a free-market economy implemented after the 1980s. Its contribution to GDP, which was 26 percent in the 1980s, fell to 8.5 percent in 2013; its contribution to exports, which was 57 percent in the 1980s, fell to 10 percent in 2013; and its contribution to employment, which was 62.5 percent in the 1980s, fell to 26 percent in 2013. In 2025, the share of agriculture in GDP fell to 2.8 percent, and its share in total employment fell to 14 percent.

A leader must choose a goal for themselves by filtering all the value judgments of society through the sieve of contemporary rationalism and national consciousness within the "logic of conditions." This must be agriculture, which is an economic and national development policy.

We want a free Turkey. We want a Turkey where Turkish citizens possess all the rights that people in advanced and civilized countries have, where these rights function completely, where no one fears anyone, where everyone is connected to the state and to each other with love and respect, and where every member of the country can walk in every corner of the country without fear or doubt. We want a Turkey whose vineyards, hillsides, plains, and fields are full of wheat stalks.

For our longing for such a Turkey to be realized, we must once again start our longing for a producing Turkey in agriculture. For this, we must initiate reverse migration for the large unemployed and poor segments trapped in cities. Today, we have as much uncultivated agricultural land in our country as we have cultivated. We must reorganize pastures by nationalizing them. We can be the world's leading country in agriculture; to do so, we must implement mega-projects. We must redirect university graduate youth back to villages and agricultural towns. We must make two years of work mandatory for them to work in agriculture. We must allocate agricultural land, agricultural tools, and houses to the youth who will continue agriculture. We must provide 20-year, interest-free loans if necessary for agriculture.

Industry has substitutes, but agriculture does not. We are facing a significant agricultural and food crisis.

For us to be a self-sufficient, competitive, and exporting country in agriculture, we must implement the following projects in a short time:

* Soil erosion prevention project

* Project to increase productivity and product diversity in agriculture

* Project to raise the living standards of those working in agriculture

* Agricultural incentive project

* Agricultural irrigation project

* Agricultural fertilizer project

* Agricultural seed project

* Agricultural pesticide problem project

* Agricultural credit project

* TarımBank (Agricultural Bank) project in agriculture

* Agricultural employment project

* Agricultural crop insurance project

* Agricultural support purchases and floor price policy project

* Village infrastructure problem project

* Village health services project

* Village school project

* Agricultural livestock project

* Fresh fruit and vegetable project

* Forest products evaluation project

* Wheat project

* Feed project

* Aquaculture project

* Oilseeds project

* Hazelnut project

* Grape storage project

* Tobacco project

* Tea project

* Beet project

* Project to deliver agricultural products to the consumer

The lands of Anatolia have been intertwined with all the problems born from the generosity of nature and the richness of history. The people of Anatolia once tied their destiny to the soil and protected their land at least as much as their mothers and fathers did. Now it is time to take care of our land and produce again, just like our mothers and fathers.

The solution to problems related to agriculture is a national development issue. The cause of agriculture is an economic, social, and national cause. The solutions must be paths that will make the citizen more prosperous, our country richer, and provide the opportunity to use its resources better. Being a freer and richer country must be our destiny. Agricultural projects are not limited to these. The solution we find must not make the soil the master of man, but man the master of the soil.

Prof. Dr. Duran BÜLBÜL