Seed law a death blow to agriculture

The Chamber of Agriculture Engineers stated that international seed companies have growing effect on agriculture of Turkey
Wednesday, 28 December 2016 05:24

The Chamber of Agriculture Engineers (ZMO) condemned the government decree, which bans local seed trade and limits subsidy coverage to farmers using certificated seeds only, starting from 2018.

The ZMO Adana branch's chairperson Semih Karademir regarding state subvention to farmers made a written statement and stressed that if farmers who do not use certified seeds are not be subsidised, agriculture in Turkey will become increasingly dependent on international seed companies.

Karademir reminded that trade of domestic seed species is already banned by the law of seed growing and he asked why the farmers using domestic seed species are punished. The private sector has a big share in seed production; 100% in strategically important products, including corn, sunflower, potato, cotton and vegetables, 64% in wheat, 83% in barley and 63% in forage crop, he said. Karademir also asked if the ministry protects the interests of companies, rather than the farmers.

Monocultural farming based on certified seeds leads to the disappearance of domestic species, which are very important for gene variety, he added.

As Karademir reminded, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım and President Tayyip Erdoğan complained recently about the environmental pollution due to the use of chemical fertilisers. Karademir stressed that certified seeds required chemical fertilisers.

AGRICULTURE IS HEAVILY DAMAGED

The law is patterned on  European Union (EU) seed laws. During the past years, the EU witnessed farmers demonstrations in several European countries, especially in France. The EU's agricultural policies are being criticised and European support to farm incomes has fallen substantially over the last 20 years. 

In the past, Turkey's government has supported its agriculture, objectives have been to increase food self-sufficiency and rural development, stabilise farmers' incomes, provide adequate nutrition and affordable food and promote exports. Since 1980, Turkey has promulgated an ongoing series of agricultural policy reforms designed to privatise markets, reduce agricultural subsidies. Both the IMF and the World Bank supported this strategy; The World Bank provided five structural adjustment loans (SALs).

Agriculture is heavily damaged during the ruling AKP party, which is strongly driving this policy.