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Müge K. Davran & Burhan Özalp & Naciye Tok & Burak Öztornacı
SWOT Analysis for Rural Youth and Agricultural Employment
According to the SWOT analysis, in terms of Turkey our strengths are especially the
rural young labor force and favorable climate conditions for agricultural production.
Our weaknesses are the desire of young people to move away from agricultural pro-
duction, mainly due to the lack of education of rural youth, low income, landless-
ness, rural poverty and limited rural development programs. Unless this problem is
resolved, our opportunities like having strong strengths and not having extreme pov-
erty and being in a low risk group in terms of labor force will not be able to provide
an important solution. The most important threats in terms of agricultural employment
can be summarized as high migration tendency in young people, it is not only due to
economic inadequacy, but also due to discredit agriculture as a profession and inad-
equate agricultural production policies.
Rural Youth in Terms of Employment and Possible Scenarios
Related to Agriculture
In terms of employment within the research, three possible scenarios for rural youth
and agriculture have been envisaged. These are the continuation of existing employ-
ment policies and programs, implementation of general employment policies and
programs for young people and implementation of policies and programs for employ-
ment of rural youth. These scenarios have been examined in relation to rural young
women, rural young men and the agriculture sector in general.
Conclusion and Discussion
Due to the negative effects of factors like applied agriculture, employment and edu-
cation policies, EU harmonization process, climate etc., socio-economic problems in
agriculture sector in Turkey bring producers to the stage of breakage from agriculture.
The tendency to abandon agriculture in the young generation is quite high. This will
increase the youth unemployment rates, which are already quite high in the coming
years; consequently it will cause reducing self-sufficiency in agriculture in the long
run, the unintended use of agricultural land, moving away from on-site rural devel-
opment goals and eventually unemployment again. At the same time, this problem
contains processes like immigration and migration, urban environmental problems,
alienation.
