Hard work in little time for ecological agriculture
ETO
2005-07-21
Reading Num: 2,283
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Agricultural activities are closely related with movement of population in the world. Nearly 10 thousand years ago when the world population was only 5 million, food was obtained by hunting and gathering.
And 5,000 years ago the urbanization began. In parallel with the urbanization; rapid population growth with distribution centering only on certain areas led to the fast destruction of nature and the increase in need of food supplies in these areas. In 1965, the average world population growth was estimated 2.1 % annually, and accordingly the population would increase two fold in 36 years. During this period the broad aim of the national and international agricultural policies -known as the Green Revolution- was to increase overall agricultural production and in so doing to supply food for the increasing population. High yielding breeder seeds, intense treatment with fertilizers and pesticides and the mechanized mono-cultural practices were established as a result of these farming policies. By the beginning of the 80’s however, the “Green Revolution” was in question especially in Western European countries -despite its success in increasing food supply- as being environmentally destructive because of the ecological problems it caused like decline in fertility, fertilizer and pesticide contamination of waterways, pesticide poisoning, declining water tables and increasing soil infertility. Moreover, it was very clear for everyone by then, that the food output increased at a faster rate overall than population growth And thus malnourishment was because of the inefficiency in distribution rather than the insufficiency of food supply.
At this point, environmentally conscious growers’ implementations and their output began to find a market. By 1990 EU’s decision on supporting the environment friendly implementations in agriculture led the way for the ecological production as an alternative system with its products on the market with set values.
In our country the ecological agriculture began in 1984-1985 with the demand of raisin and fig- Turkey’s traditional export goods- to be cultivated ecologically. Until 1990 only 8 products were cultivated ecologically, whereas in 1999 the product range went up to 92. 1037 ha of agricultural land in 1990 increased up to 44,552 ha in 1999 and the producers from 1037 up to 12,435.
Because the variety of the product range relies totally on the overseas demands, the largest share of production is on dry and dried products. As the local market improves, the product demands will eventually change and accordingly the production and variety of wheat, flour, floury manufactured goods, fresh fruit and vegetables will increase. As for now 52 % of the cultivated area is for dry and dried products, 24 % herbs and only 1 % vegetables and likewise the producers’ 59 % in dry and dried products range, 10 % in herb and 1 % in vegetable range.
Instead of exporting the products as raw-goods, the export of processed products has a higher profit margin for the national economy, exporters and growers. And today many of the products are processed before they are exported like cotton as fibers and textile goods. And dried products are packed and ready before they are exported. Apart from these, tomato sauce, fruit concentrates, rose water and rose oil can be given as examples as well. Nevertheless, the processed output’s share in the overall production must doubtlessly be increased even more. |
