Prices of agricultural products easily affected by natural conditions and whose price elasticies for demand and supply are both low, fluctuate at high levels from year to year. These fluctuations with their backward and forward linkages affect the whole economy. Therefore, the governments interfere in agricultural products markets. Agricultural support policies in Turkey, until the end of 1990s were applied as short term support purchases instead of structural measures. A transformation process in the agricultural policy have begun in the year 2000 for support purchases and income subsidies were heavy burdens on the government budget, and also for agricultural reforms towards the liberalization of exports with the frame of World Trade Organization (WTO) Agriculture Agreement, Turkey's obligations to the European Union (EU)'s common agricultural policies during the process of attaining full membership position, and redirections by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank established this transformation process. In this study, changes in the agricultural supports practiced in Turkey are analyzed. At first, the structure of the agricultural sector and the problems encountered have been adverted, and following that, reform processes in agricultural support policies practiced in Turkey as of the year 2008 have been discussed.
Key words: Turkey\'s Agricultural Policies, Direct Income Support, Product Support Article Language: EnglishTurkish
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