‘Turkey's Economic Reform Package makes no mention of farmers’

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA) - Archive

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Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Bursa MP Orhan Sarıbal has criticized the Economic Reform Package unveiled by President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a publicity meeting on Friday (March 12).

"It is once again revealed that neither farmers nor agriculture is on the agenda of the AKP," Orhan Sarıbal has protested.

Noting that "even a single penny was not allocated to farmers" in the Economic Stability Shield Program introduced in Turkey in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sarıbal has said, "The AKP government has, once again, made no mention of farmers in its recently unveiled package. The AKP has discarded both agriculture and farmers."

23 economy packages in 19 years

According to CHP's Sarıbal, the ruling party has unveiled 23 different economy packages in the last 19 years since it came to power in 2002.

"We are aware that the unveiled packages make no contribution to the country's economy. But, even on paper, the fact that farmers are excluded from the packages is the most obvious indication that farmers are null and void in the eyes of the AKP," he has noted.

Referring to the past two years when the Presidential Government System has been in effect in Turkey, Sarıbal has said, "While agriculture has suffered a total collapse in the AKP era, the data on agriculture have become much worse in the Presidential Government System."

According to the figures shared by the main opposition MP within this context, while the number of people registered in the social security system of the agricultural sector was 690 thousand in June 2018, this figure dropped by 147 thousand people to 547 thousand people in December 2020.

In the same period, the number of insured agricultural workers in Turkey dropped from 47 thousand to 31 thousand people.

As for the debt of farmers in this period, Sarıbal has indicated that while farmers' total debt to banks was 96.9 billion lira (~12.8 billion USD), this amount also increased by 33.6 billion lira to 130.5 billion lira.

"Farmers' debt has increased by 32 percent in the Presidential Government System," Bursa MP Sarıbal has underlined.

'Farmers leave production, quit farming'

Commenting on these statistics and figures, Orhan Sarıbal has indicated that "farmers are leaving production, abandoning their villages and agricultural fields and having more and more debt."

"In spite of this, the country sees import records over import records," CHP's Sarıbal has said, adding that "Turkey has been breaking world records or seeing the highest volumes of import in the Republican period when it comes to the production of livestock, wheat, barley, corn, cotton, soy and lentils, all of which can be produced in Turkey."

"If farmers are satisfied with their lives, why should they quit farming? If they earn money, why should they use credit? While farmers are struggling against debts and attachments, there is not a single solution offered in the recently unveiled package," Sarıbal has said.

"This means the following: The AKP and the Palace Regime have discarded the country's agriculture and farmers," he has added.

"But there is one thing that they do not understand: They used to find import, rather than production, important because it was cheaper. But, now, import is more expensive than production," Sarıbal has noted, indicating that the government "still does not give farmers the necessary support in spite of this, not even mentioning their names in 'reforms'." (HA/SD)