Sustainable Agriculture in Turkey: Potential, Obstacles and Recommendations

Natural resources are threatened to meet needing of increased population. Sustainable agricultural production practices are required to provide activities against global warming, energy use and water scarcity etc. This study is aim to put current situation and potential of Turkish Agriculture for sustainability, reveal obstacles and present recommendations. The information collected is presented by strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) analysis approach and some recommendations are made. In terms of sustainability Turkey has some strengths (wide agricultural and ecological zones, biological diversity, high numbers and quality research institutes, increased levels of education and awareness of producers) and opportunities (supports for organic agriculture and biological control, New trends towards consuming natural products etc.) for sustainable agriculture. At the same time, there are some weaknesses (low competitiveness, large numbers of small farmers and wide chemical input use) and threats (lack of knowledge about sustainability in the society, agricultural subsidies and inexpensive food demand etc.). Government supports, education and some additional projects can be useful to expand sustainable production systems

Keywords:

SWOT analysis, Sustainable agriculture, Turkey,

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