Farmer Centred, Zero Waste, Practical Industrial Agriculture, Solution to Food Inflation
Industrial agriculture is the most intensive and high-input method of tillage, based on excessive land use and high yields with excessive inputs. The main benefit of industrial agriculture is an adequate food supply at affordable prices.
What is Industrial Agriculture?
Industrial agriculture is the more effective and efficient use of agricultural land in order to obtain the highest possible yield in order to make a profit and support the food needs of people. In industrial agriculture practice; empty, idle, that is, unused agricultural land is considered "idle capacity", this virus is a problem and efforts are made to solve the problem.
The maximum crop level is achieved through typical intensive agricultural practices such as increased use of fertilisers, pesticides, balanced irrigation, land cultivation with modern machinery, planting of high-yielding species, expansion of new areas. Industrial agriculture is the most intensive and high-input method of tillage, based on excessive land use and high yields with excessive inputs. The main benefit of industrial agriculture is an adequate food supply at affordable prices.
Industrial agriculture accelerates the national economy, reduces unemployment and curbs inflation.
However, industrial agriculture should be handled with a scientific perspective, industrial discipline and systematic approach, and processes should be carried out carefully and rapidly. Because; it is a serious, intensive agricultural and industrial activity and "a serious business cannot be sustained by non-serious methods".
Is Industrial Agriculture being carried out in our country?
The financial power of Turkish farmers is not sufficient for industrial agriculture practices. Our powerful companies are also not very interested in this issue. Perhaps, if it still exists, it is or can be implemented through some State Economic Organisations (SOEs).
Imperialism has been ruthlessly exploiting the underground energy resources of the world for three centuries
In the industrial revolution that started with the steam engine, followed by the dominance of the internal combustion engine, the most critical need of the world for industrial and social life was energy, and the most critical source of energy was oil, natural gas and coal, which are called carbon-based resources. For this reason, for the last 2.5 centuries, nations that felt themselves strong first declared the nations living on these valuable energy resources as enemies and then ruthlessly exploited the energy resources in the lands of those nations, and they continue to exploit directly or indirectly today.
Imperialism's Appetite for Food Increases
The exploitation of energy resources continues and will continue, but there is another very critical, very necessary resource that must be added immediately to the scarce resources to be exploited by imperialists and which is vital for human life, and that is "food".
Countries with the capacity to produce food have recognised agriculture and animal husbandry sectors, which are the most important sources of food, as strategic sectors and started to increase their capacities intensively.
Our country has agricultural areas, water resources and seasonal and geographical advantages that provide serious opportunities for the sustainability of agriculture and animal husbandry.
However, due to factors such as insufficient financing, excessive cost of financial resources, expensive inputs, insufficient labour force, inefficiency, inability to organise, inability to create synergy, etc., agricultural production in our country is decreasing, food products based on agriculture are becoming scarce and their prices are increasing.
Measures should be taken now and our agricultural productivity and efficiency should be increased. Among the measures that can be taken, I believe that the most appropriate, effective and efficient method will be the "Farmer-Centred, Zero-Waste, Practical Industrial Agriculture" that we propose in this article.
What is Practical Industrial Agriculture?
It is agriculture that uses all possible and feasible methods, land, machinery and equipment related to experience, real situations or actions rather than ideas or theories. As manpower, local people, namely farmers and peasants, who are also the owners of the land, should be employed as much as possible, and in cases where they are insufficient, they should be reinforced with periodic agricultural workers. Agricultural farmers and peasants should be paid for their labour, the rent for the use of their land and the profit obtained from the product.
What are the Advantages of Practical Industrial Agriculture?
The main advantage of Practical Industrial Agriculture is the increased performance when higher yields are obtained from smaller agricultural areas. This provides serious benefits to the landowners and the national economy and keeps the supply-demand in balance by providing enough food for the growing population, dampening inflationary pressure due to insufficient food supply.
Practical Industrial Agriculture may not fully meet market demand even in densely populated areas. For example, the entire food need of Istanbul, the largest food market in Turkey, can be met from the agricultural areas within the borders of Istanbul and its neighbouring borders.
In addition, since chemical pest and weed controls work faster and are easier to implement, they require less labour force than environmentally friendly agricultural methods.
Utilisation of Technology in Industrial Agriculture
Technological applications in agriculture greatly facilitate the efforts of agriculturalists and save costs. Field monitoring with drones and satellites, spraying with drones, effective but economical irrigation under the control of field sensors, etc. technological innovations will make industrial agriculture more efficient, of course, the application of technological innovations to agricultural fields in this model should be done by the state.
What is Zero Waste in Agriculture?
Zero waste agriculture is a sustainable type of agriculture with zero waste where wastes are separated and converted into biofuel, animal feed, fertiliser, pellets for fuel, etc. in a synergistic integrated cycle of profit-making processes. Each process becomes the raw material of another process. There is no waste in zero waste agriculture. The model we propose also includes zero waste agriculture methods. In this model, there is no product that is not utilised.
Agricultural wastes can be used in biofuel production. A sample biofuel plant.
What is Farmer Centred, Zero Waste, Practical Industrial Agriculture, What do we mean by this business model?
Our country has sufficient soil suitable for agriculture, suitable seasons for agriculture, experienced agricultural labour force and energetic young people. The biggest shortcomings of these people are financing, not being organised, not being able to predict which product they can sell at a better price if they plant, being condemned to the traders, etc. are the ongoing, never-ending problems of the people who cultivate and harvest the land.
However, it will not be difficult to overcome this misfortune with the co-operation of the state and farmers. First of all, the farmer who owns the land should feel the power of the state by his side. In the business model we propose; a production consortium will be established, in this consortium the state will undertake the financing, the purchase guarantee, the installation of the facility that will convert the surplus waste into biofuel and other products, the farmer will rent his land to the consortium, put forth his labour and receive the price of his labour, in addition, the profit arising from the consortium activity will also belong to the farmer, the farmer will pay tax to the state from the income obtained.
The state should enter the consortium as a SOE (State Economic Organisation) and should not "aim to make a profit", yes, the state should not make a profit, but it should not make a loss either.
In this model; all the product produced will be purchased by the state at an affordable price, a part of the purchased product will be sold to the public through municipal sales outlets and other public institutions, a part will be offered for sale as canned food, the wasted product will be converted into fuel, animal feed, fertiliser, etc. products in biofuel plants to be established by the state together with all plant residues. In this way, all of the products of the consortium formed by the state and the farmers will be used, including the wastes, and a production process with "0 Waste" will be carried out.
