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Müge K. Davran & Burhan Özalp & Naciye Tok & Burak Öztornacı
The Importance of Agriculture and Agricultural Employment for
Turkey
It is a fact that agricultural areas in Turkey are shrinking rapidly. According to GTHB
(2017 / a) records, agricultural areas, which were 27,856 thousand hectares in 1990,
are lost about their 15%, and in 2016, it is declined to 23,763 thousand hectares.
Similarly, while in 1990 the rural population was 41%, of the whole population, it
decreased to 23% in 2012. In 2016, the percentage was about 8% due to the law
change. When the period between 1990 and 2012 is considered, the rural population
loss is 26% (TUİK, 2017 / b). These developments also reflected the employment
status in agriculture. While employment in agriculture was 47% in 1990, it was 20%
in 2016.
In Turkey, the distance between the input prices and the prices suggested by farmers
makes the agricultural production more difficult. For the farmers, the sustainability
of agriculture depends on external borrowing. For this reason, the agricultural loans
used between 2012 and 2016 have increased very rapidly.
Losing the reputation of agriculture in the eyes of young people in rural areas leads
to not seeing agriculture as a means of subsistence for a good life. As a result, it is
difficult for young people to stay in rural areas and to be employed in agriculture.
Young Population in Turkey, Current Situation of Unemployment
and Employment
According to the results of ADNK in 2016 (TURKSTAT, 2017 / c), the population of
between the ages of 15-24 in Turkey is announced as 16.3% (12 million 989 thousand
42 people).
According to the results of the same study, 24% of the age group of 15-24 did not
take part in either employment or education; this ratio is 14.6% for males and 33.5%
for females. In 2016, the youth unemployment rate was 19.6%.This figure shows that
approximately one out of every five young people is unemployed.
Employment Areas of Rural Young People
In TURKSTAT statistics, there is no direct statistics on the employment area of rural
young people. In large agricultural enterprises, young family members, mainly men
can contribute to the sector by studying in Agricultural Faculties. However, if there is
