Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

  At the meeting Talat Şentürk from Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Directorate General of Agricultural Products and Devolopment make a presentation about the agricultural subsidies between the years of 2002-2009. Şentürk, mentioned about the following topics:   Turkey Has an Important Agricultural Potantial   “Turkey, with its cental location, closeness to Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia, strong structural body, basic facilities and infrastructure has an important agricultural potantial.   Agricultural subsidies increase 3 times in 8 years, oil seeds subsidies increase 6 times in 8 years     Şentürk expressed that the subsidies for agriculture is 1,8 billion TL in 2002 was and 5.7 billion TL in 2010. So the subsidies increased 3 times in 8 years. And subsidies in oil seeds is 136 million TL in 2002, and 1.053 billion TL in 2010, so subdsidies in oil seeds increase 6 times in 8 years.   Strategy of the subsidies   Şentürk give a brief information about the strategy of the agricultural subsidies. This strategy includes the principles about which products will be promoted. Subsidies are firstly given to the products which are in demand deficit, secondly to the basic products and thirdly to the special products. The aim of the strategy is decrasing the costs, meeting the needs of the country and increasing the export. 17 agricultural products are promoted now and the increase forecast is 50-55 products.   Licensed Warehouse System in USA depends on strong NGO structure   TOBB Board Member Mustafa Yardımcı gave a brief information about the licensed warehouse system in USA. The most important characteristic of the system in USA is the strong NGO structure. After the Great Depression in 1929, effective and strong NGO structure was built not to experince terrible results of the depression again. The income of these NGOs is coming from the companies in the system. The NGOs control the companies and apply strict sanctions. And also organizational costs in USA is lower than Turkey.   Pressurized Watering System is a priority for protecting our water resources and soil   In the meeting, it is emphasized that the most of the usable water in our country is mostly used in irrigation, (mostly in flood irrigation), but to protect the soil and water resources and to increase the agricultural efficiency, pressurized watering system has to be established and generalized around the country immediately.