Young Farmers in Agriculture Sector of Turkey: Young Farmers Support Program

Abstract

Although Turkey's agricultural sector is important in terms of national economy, it faces some important structural problems such as decrease in human capital in the agricultural sector. In order to solve these problems, within the "National Agricultural Project", a policy instrument named "Support for Young Farmers Projects" (YFPS) was added to the support in 2016. The aim of this study was to evaluate the criteria used in the selection of the beneficiaries of young farmers' support within the scope of YFPS in Turkey. A survey was prepared to determine what features young farmers benefiting from project support have and the extent to which the selection criteria served the purposes of the support program. The survey was conducted in the TR 71 Region, which is at the center of Turkey, in June-August, 2017. A total of 248 young farmers (139 supported, and 109 non-selected farmers for support) were interviewed. The methodology used in this study was the Categorical Regression. The results showed that the applicants who benefited more from YFPS were in the following order: Female> married> those aged 18-30> people from rural areas with a population of 1,000 or less> those with education in agricultural production> the disabled / martyr's relatives / ghazi, and those from enterprises with an annual income of TL 10,000 or less. YFPS has breathed new life into agriculture by encouraging youths in rural areas, but this support has to be aimed at creating economically sustainable and viable enterprises.