What the devil says in agriculture!

During the budget negotiations for the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) on November 24, 2025, certain findings were presented and results were reported regarding the deadlocks in agriculture.

For example, while agriculture's share of employment was 34.9 percent in 2002, it declined to 14.8 percent in the second quarter of 2024. In other words, this share fell from 7.5 million to 4.8 million.

Agricultural production has not increased per capita. For instance, we have become the country that imports the most wheat in the world.

It is impossible not to agree with these findings.

However, it is also necessary to see the root causes that lead to these negative outcomes in agriculture. At the very least, there are no reports regarding these root causes in the news reflected in the newspapers.

WHAT ARE THE 'THINGS THE DEVIL SAYS' IN AGRICULTURE?

I would like to list some of them.

• Agricultural State Economic Enterprises (KITs) were privatized.

The agricultural state enterprises tasked with protecting farmers to a certain extent against domestic and foreign monopolies were privatized. For example, SEK, YEMSAN, TÜGSAŞ and İGSAŞ, TEKEL, KHGM, and TZDK were liquidated through privatization. TKK was granted autonomy. DSI was transformed into an organization with a special budget. EBK was rendered dysfunctional by being converted into ESK. TMO was distanced from its function. Ziraat Bank entered the privatization process. Some of the TİGEMs were disposed of. ÇAY-KUR was included in the scope of the privatization process. And the producer was condemned to price-setting by foreign and domestic monopolies.

• Weakness prevailed in the economic organization of farmers.

The technical and economic spheres of activity of organizations were pitted against each other, and unnecessary friction was created. The effectiveness of these organizations in creating economic policy remained quite limited, and the share of cooperatives in economic organization dropped significantly. The share of producers in processing agricultural products through cooperative organization in rural Turkey is, by an optimistic estimate, around 3 percent. This weakness condemned growers to the dominance of foreign and domestic monopolies.

• Farmers were left dysfunctional in marketing channels.

Since farmers were unorganized in terms of economic organization, a large number of intermediaries came to dominate the market. Producer organizations deliver the products they process to consumers through intermediaries. The prices received by the producer have also declined in real terms. Even in fruits and vegetables, the producer does not even receive a tenth of the price paid by the consumer. Especially regarding red meat prices, they have increased so much at the consumer level that it is impossible to say that a large majority can access them.

• Agricultural subsidies were insufficient and did not reach the target audience.

The 1 percent agricultural support committed to in the Agriculture Law was not realized. Subsidy prices were kept below production costs. The share allocated from the national income to agricultural subsidies in Turkey fell from 0.8 percent in 2005 to 0.2 percent (91.5 Billion TL) in 2024.

Most of us do not know that this rate is 20 percent in the European Union, where the liberal economy prevails, 12 percent in the USA, and 9 percent in Canada.

Moreover, insufficient subsidies were directed toward giant corporate-based agricultural enterprises instead of small and medium-sized enterprises based on family labor.

• There is cost inflation in agricultural production.

The prices of agricultural inputs have shown a continuous increase. For example: • The price of diesel has increased by 105 percent in the last year. There is a price hike on diesel every day during harvest time. • Since March 2023, fertilizer prices have risen at rates ranging from 20 to 35 percent. • Agricultural pesticides increased by 56.6 percent, and electricity by 2.1 percent. • There was a 43.7 percent increase in the price of livestock feed and a 44.8 percent increase in dairy feed.

In short, not only was the diesel and fertilizer support given to the farmer insufficient, but costs also increased due to excessive hikes in agricultural pesticides and electricity. In contrast, the announced base prices were not sufficient. Moreover, the prices of the products produced by the farmer are also falling every day.

• Land reform could not be carried out in Southeastern and Eastern Anatolia.

The feudal structure in Southeastern and Eastern Anatolia created an imbalance in income distribution and unemployment, fueled migration from rural areas, and this migration did not stop. In this situation, three interconnected stages were required: the implementation of a permanent land reform, the establishment of cooperative organization of farmers alongside land reform, and the establishment of an agro-industry under public guidance and control.

However, for now, no political approach has brought this issue to the agenda in their proposals for solving the problem that some call the Kurdish Question and others call the Eastern Question.(*) Political organizations think they will seek the votes of landless and small-landholding peasants through the landlords (ağas). Some can even say, albeit very rarely, that "there is no feudalism in the region."

In fact, the issue of land reform aimed at the liquidation of the feudal structure concerns not only the East and Southeast but all of Turkey.

(*) In Turkey, the problem created by the separatist terrorist movement is not addressed in the direction of the liquidation of feudalism, which is directly linked to land tenure. It is not voiced that the issue is about land ownership and the problem of landless peasants; it is almost hidden. Instead, conflict over cultural identity has been pushed to the forefront for years, and economic problems have been rendered invisible. How the inequalities created in the region by Turkey's externally dependent capitalism and the feudal-tribal order that reproduces them will be changed—in short, the subject of class struggle—is not even entering the discussions. (See: Kaymakçı, M., 2025. Turkey's Agriculture - Imperialist Attack and Solutions. pp. 403-417. Pankuş Publications)

Prof. Dr. Halil İnalcık also explains the basis of this problem as follows: "The USA and the West are creating dependent governments in the region, especially because of the oil resources there. Among these governments, the one in the strongest position and the one that acts most independently is Turkey. To keep Turkey dependent—whether it is America or Europe—they are meddling in the Kurdish issue. ... In my opinion, all of this is nothing more than a continuation of the 'Question d'Orient-Eastern Question' policy in Europe in the 19th century." (See: Çankaya, E., 2005. Interview, The Pole of Historians, Halil İnalcık Book, T.C. İş Bankası Publications: 895, Istanbul)

November 28, 2025