Neoliberal Agricultural Policies, Food Sovereignty and Turkey

Abstract

Agriculture is a privileged sector owing to every nation's desire for feeding their population with their own production and nondependence on other countries. The sector has also played a crucial role in Turkish economy since the establishment of the Republic until the 1980s and due to these features, the sector has been largely supported by governments within that period. However, starting from the 1980s, the neoliberal policies which were highly adopted by governments changed this tendency. The necessities of the neoliberal policies such as reducing or eliminating agricultural subsidies/supports, restricting certain agricultural production areas, facilitating the imports of agricultural products and privatizations have all together caused a departure from agriculture in Turkey. Due to high costs, agriculture has been "impractical" and many producers/farmers have given up or limited their agricultural production in the course of time. Various agricultural products have begun to be imported from foreign countries due to high production costs. Eventually, the neoliberal policies have initiated "de-agrarianization" process in the country. In conjunction with the "de-agrarianization" process, the migration from rural to urban has increased, and agricultural production - the primary activity of the rural - has decreased considerably. Turkey is forced to import many agricultural products which she exported earlier; moreover, the country has lost her self-sufficiency concerning food that she previously owned. The decrease in agricultural production and export and the substantial increase in agricultural imports have also deepened the current account deficit of the country; consequently, macroeconomic problems have occurred in providing the balance of payments in the last decades. The aim of this chapter is to evaluate the effects of implemented neoliberal agricultural policies since the 1980s in the framework of food sovereignty in Turkey. The study not only unearths the results of implemented neoliberal agricultural policies but also targets developing policy proposals to save the country from foreign dependency and economic impasse. © Peter Lang AG 2019.