Essay Example on Agriculture: Key to Turkey's Food Security and Economic Stability

Introduction

The majority of the Turkish people depend on agriculture as an occupation despite the high rise of the industrialization sectors. Turkey has been ranked as one of the countries that can fully support its citizens with enough food. The growth of this food is mainly favored by the fertile soil, the excellent climate that supports the food crops, and adequate rainfall in the areas that the plants are grown. Farming is mostly practiced in most parts of Turkey e although it is less practiced in the eastern regions where mountains surround it. In these areas, animal husbandry is the most practiced activities as it favors it. Animal husbandry coves about a quarter of the total value of the total agriculture production. Turkey is one of the countries in the world that covered the highest land, which is under agriculture. As per 2015, about 35.5% of the area is arable lands, and the forest sector covers about 15% of the total land, and about 18.4% 0f the whole nation is under irrigation. 76% of the total agricultural products produced are the vegetable products, and the animal husbandry sector comes second while fishing and forestry come last with a fewer percentage as they cover a small portion of the total agricultural products produced. Most vegetable products are from fruits and field crops having wheat as the leading crop. As per the figures collected by 2015, Turkey is the fourth producer of fresh vegetables and grapes, and it is the largest producer of hazelnuts, raisins, figs, and apricots globally. As defined by the International Monetary Fund, the economy of Turkey is an emerging market economy. Turkey is among the most developed countries according to the reports by the CIA World Factbook. It is also among the most world's newly industrialized countries according to news from the political scientists and economists. It is among the world's leading producers of motor vehicles, agricultural products, construction materials, textiles, home appliances, and transport equipment and consumer electronics.

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GDP Growth Rate

Over the last twenty years, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Turkey has expanded by 1.9% in the fourth quarter of 2019 over the previous quarter. March 2020 is the last time that the Turkey GDP growth was last updated in different sectors. The sectors included: historical charts, data, and calendar release. The update came directly from the official source. The growth rate from 1998-2019. The Growth Domestic Product of Turkey recorded a 6% growth rate in December 2019. This was after recording a growth of 1% recorded over the last quarter. There is always update of the Turkish GDP, which is updated quarterly and is available from March 1999 to December 2019, and it records an average rate of 5.9%. In March 2011, the recorded data reached 11.7%, which was high compared to -14.4%, recorded in March 2009. The real GDP is calculated by CEIC and is derived from the real GDP index. From the latest report, the Turkey GDP reached about 205.5 USD, and this was reported in December 2019. In the same year and month, the Turkish GDP deflector recorded an increase of 10.4% while the gross savings were measured at 25.7%

GDP Per Capita

Turkey GDP Per Capita data is usually updated yearly, with the latest one being updated in December 2019. The available one is from December 1998 to December 2019, which recorded an average number of 9,391.415 USD. The Turkish Statistical Institute in USD provides the GDP Per Capita of the Turkish. Compared with the report of December 2018, where Turkey's GDP Per Capita reached 9,692.567 USD, December 2019 recorded 9,126.936 USD. December 2013 marked the highest GDP Per Capita ever of 12,480,317 USD compared to December 2001, which marked the lowest GDP Per Capita ever of 3,084.394. As per the latest report, there was a recorded expansion of the Turkey GDP Per Capita of 5.955% in December 2019, where its minimal GDP reached 205.513 USD. The gross saving rate in December 2019 was measured at 25.737%, with the GDP reflector increasing to 10.400%.

Turkey politics have played a bigger role in the country's process of ensuring that the country can open up its economy worldly. It has opened its trade externally to an extend of attracting multinational companies and has led to more important steps in the foreign direct investments (FDI). Despite global slack, foreign investors continue to trust and invest in Turkey as it can fully attract them. According to analysts, in 2018, Turkey was able to attract about $13 billion of foreign direct investment. A report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development on the Global Investment Report by 2019 showed that Turkey was able to attract more investment in a period. Still, the global FDI was showing a decreasing trend. In 2018, there was an increase in Turkey FDI by 13%, while there was a decrease in global FDI by 13% to drop up to $ 1.3 trillion.

Turkey Population

Overall Growth Rate

The Republic of Turkey is a transcontinental country bordered by eight countries. The current population of Turkey estimates at 84.34 million. This is an increase from 2013, where the population was estimated to be at 75.5 million. 49.1% of the total population .is expected to be male, while 50.9% expected to be the population of the female of the total population. There is a steady increase in the people where there are about 3600 births each day compared to the n estimate of 1224 deaths recorded every day. It's a clear indication that the population continues to increase, recording about 150% of the years. Turkey has been ranked 17th in the world in terms of population with about 1.29% growth rate annually. Of the total population, Islam is the largest religion, with about 99.8% of the people followed by other religions, with about 0.2% of the people, and almost 70% of the total population lives in urban centers.

Fertility Growth Rate

There has been a decrease in the rate of fertility in Turkey over the last 20 years. In the latest report in 2019, the fertility rate of Turkey was 2.06 children per woman. In the previous 20 years, the fertility rate of Turkey has recorded a decrease of about 2.06 children per woman in 2019 from 5.62 children to each woman in the 90s. Over these years, Turkey has suffered fro low infertility rates, but in a way, it is stable compared to other countries. With this, the government has put up some policies and implement them to curb the whole process and help maintain a standard fertility rate. It has put measures to increase the fertility rate by trying to improve the health sectors. It is a way of increasing life expectancy at birth, and with this, they can counter the deaths resulted from aging, which is a significant threat. The government implemented to give incentives in the form of payments to newborns that will be much with a successive birth to the extent of even paying daycare expenses to work mothers. This is to encourage young ladies who are working in urban areas to have children to be able to increase the fertility rate.

Infant Mortality Rate

In 2018, the infant mortality rate for Turkey was 9.1 deaths per 1000 live births. Over the last 20 years, there has been a declining infant mortality rate in Turkey that shrank from 130.6 deaths in every 1000 lives in the past to 9.1 deaths per 1000 live births in 2018.

DATE VALUE CHANGE, %

• 2018 10.6 -5.36 %
• 2017 11.2 -5.88 %
• 2016 11.9 -5.56 %
• 2015 12.6 -5.97 %
• 2014 13.4 -5.63 %
• 2013 14.2 -6.58 %
• 2012 15.2 -6.17 %
• 2011 16.2 -6.36 %
• 2010 17.3 -6.99 %
• 2009 18.6 -7.00 %
• 2008 20.0 -7.41 %
• 2007 21.6 Turkey Social Geography

Trends In Food Production

Over the last 20 years, Turkey has, in a more significant way, come up with patterns to ensure there are maximum production and supply of food to curb hunger and malnutrition among its citizens. They have come up with trends like:

• Refreshed drinks where are they provide water to customers that serve their health expectations.
• Introduced technology aiming to grow the beverage sector by adding more ingredients to foods.
• Introduction of Halal foods, which serve the ever-changing population and have become famous in the market, which made about $ 1.6 trillion by 2018.
• E-Commerce is seen as a new business segment to increase sales in the market where most of the customers are the young generation who can use and afford electronic commerce.
• New trends in the Health sector to educate people on the importance of consuming foods that are important to their health. They reach these by adding more valuable ingredients with good value to the health.
• New era to agriculture to help supporting creative and ever sustaining ways to keep the arable land under use and make sure it is not affected in any way other sectors in the country.

Turkey is facing challenges that likely hinder the process of production. For example, with climate change over the years, food production is likely to go down. The country suffers from severe drought resulting from less amount of rainfall in the country. When this happens, food security will be a significant risk since food production will go down. Another challenge is that of biodiversity, where a threat of land degradation is posed.

Land Ownership And Land Distribution

The factor of land ownership and land distribution in Turkey varies mainly because of the difference in the crops grown and the incomes of different peoples. Most farmers own land and only cultivates in small areas of that land. The total number of those practicing agriculture in those lands have significantly reduced over the years by about 25%. According to a survey that took place back in years, an average of 81% of the farms is occupied by owners.

In comparison, the other 19% is held by tenants; there has been a significant shift in the farm under agriculture, mainly because of the ever-increasing population. The land is mostly occupied by people's property, which was under agriculture in the past, and unless those in the rural areas where arable land is accepted to move to urban areas, then the agricultural sector will continue declining in the future. The ground under irrigation continues to increase over the past years. The rate of land under irrigation is higher in the western part than in any other part of Turkey. Land under agriculture has continued to remain skewed. Irrigated area has continued to be slightly distributed more evenly compared to cultivated land. About 65% of all the holdings are poor farmers and have approximately covered 21% of the total area.

Area-ownership relations (2001)

Turkey Development And SDGs

The most pressing SDGs in the Turkish agricultural sector is the Erase Hunger marked as the second world SDG vision 2030 and the 13th one of climate action that focuses on regulating emissions and promoting renewable energy. With these two SDGs, Turkey will be able to come up with many ideas and modern trends that will be able to produce adequate food to satisfy the citizens of the country without much-expecting food from other countries to feed its people. With the 13th SDG being put in place, the country will be able to come up with measures that will help curb the issue of climate change. With implementing this, the climate will not be changing much because the new techniques put in place are environmentally friendly. Hence, the production of food will be higher, thus satisfying its citizens.

The target of zero hunger SDG is to end hunger in Turkey by 2030 and ensure access by all people by providing nutritious and enough food at all times. Also, it aims at doubling the agricultural productivity and incomes of the small scale producers by 2030, especially to women and those considered to be weak and minority in the country. The 13th SDG aims to strengthen...