The Main Problem In Production: Youth Are Not Interested In Farming
The agricultural sector is the most important sector of the economy in the early stages of the development process in developing countries.
The agricultural sector is the most important sector of the economy in the early stages of the development process in developing countries.
The agricultural sector, which contributes to Turkey's economic development process through various channels, employs a significant portion of the country's population, produces essential foodstuffs to feed the country's population, provides input to the industrial sector, creates demand for industrial products, and contributes to total exports through the export of agricultural products, It constitutes an important part of national income and supports industrial accumulation through relative prices.
When it comes to the agricultural sector, the first thing that comes to mind is farmers.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, has three important words.
First: "If the majority of our nation were not farmers, we would not be on earth today."
Latter; "The basis of the national economy is agriculture."
Third; “Our nation is a farmer. We must maximize the working opportunities of the nation in farming with modern and economic measures."
Farmers in Turkey are going through a difficult period. While the number of farmers, who are claimed to be unable to cover their costs, decreases every year, young people stay away from this business for social reasons.
Now I will share some numbers with you.
“While the agricultural national income was 37 billion TL in 2002, it increased to 275 billion TL as of the end of 2019.
The share of agricultural employment in total employment is decreasing.
Total foreign trade of agricultural and food products, which was 6.8 billion dollars in 2002, reached 31.4 billion dollars in 2019. In addition, total exports of agricultural and food products are above the level of total imports.
Total agricultural support payments increased in the 2002-2020 period. Supports increased by 29 percent in 2020 compared to the previous year and amounted to 21.97 billion TL.
With the investments made, 53,000 hectares of land were opened for irrigation in 2019.
The total livestock (cattle, buffalo, sheep and goat) which was 41.9 million in 2002 increased to 66.4 million in 2019.
The total red meat production, which was 764 thousand tons in 2002, reached 1.2 million tons in 2019, and the total milk production, which was 8.4 million tons in 2002, reached 23 million tons in 2019.
These are the figures of the Presidency Strategy and Budget Department.
What really draws our attention is the graphic of Agricultural Employment on the same page…
For some reason it contradicts the above statements.
According to the graph, agricultural employment in 2002 was 7 million 458 thousand. As of the end of 2019, this figure has decreased to 5 million 97 thousand people. In 2007, this figure dropped to 4 million 546 thousand.
In 17 years, 2,000 farmers have moved away from this business.
According to the information given by the President of the Chamber of Agricultural Engineers, Baki Remzi Suiçmez, the number of insured farmers in agriculture in 2011 was 1 million 121 thousand 777, according to the data of the Social Security Institution (SGK). This number decreased to 547 thousand 75 at the end of 2020.
The number of farmers registered in the Farmer Registration System (ÇKS) was 2 million 100 thousand in 2017. According to the Employment Monitoring Bulletin created by the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV) by evaluating the data for October 2020 by SGK and İŞKUR, this number dropped to 1 million 803 thousand in August 2020.
However, the number of farmers is decreasing every year in Turkey, where a significant portion of the population lived in villages until 40 years ago and lived on farming and animal husbandry.
One of the important reasons for this is İŞKUR projects.
"Why?" if you say.
The young generation in the village, who hears about İŞKUR projects, says "I will have an insured job" and leaves their production in the village and goes to the city, knocking on the door of politicians and asking for insured job opportunities. Let alone the younger generation, even the aunt over the age of 50 is enthusiastic when she hears this, but does not want to leave this legacy inherited from her ancestors. As you can see, the younger generation generally leaves production for the sake of 6 months of insurance. In his job, let alone the production, the person is accustomed to laziness. This is a great danger.
If you ask the general name of the projects; It is a “Program for Community Benefit”!
First of all, something needs to be done about the youth. It is not enough for the young people to return to the villages again. For this, social life and health services in the village should be adequate and developed. For example, if he will not stay in the village but even in the district, there will be cinema, theater, etc. in that district. social activities and life should be. It is no longer easy to keep young people in places where social life is weak.
When we see the economic problems that besieged Turkey today, we can see more clearly how important agriculture and production are.
The main sector of development and development is agriculture, production.
Projects should be made in this direction immediately. Especially to the younger generation; We must explain that farming and agriculture are also very important means of livelihood.
With the hope of being a productive Turkey, stay healthy.
