SPEECH AT THE LAUNCH OF THE 2021 AGRICULTURE REPORT
Esteemed members of the academic world, our professors,
Members of the MÜSİAD Board of Directors,
Esteemed guests,
You, esteemed members of the press world
On behalf of myself and of my institution, I extend my gratitude for your presence at the press launch of our report, which as MÜSİAD addresses Rural Development and the Future of Agriculture in the second century of the Republic and which has emerged as the product of a most meticulous study. Welcome.
I am pleased to express the satisfaction and the honour I feel at still working tirelessly on behalf of our institution one week before handing over my duty, and at sharing with you this valuable 500-page study, produced under the leadership of our Rural Development Committee, which I regard as one of the fruits of our Renewal process.
I consider it a duty to thank, in your presence, my esteemed professors and our rural development committee, who contributed to the creation of this report and who, not content with merely addressing an analysis of the current state of the Turkish agricultural sector, made highly critical determinations for the setting of strategic road maps for our second century.
Esteemed guests,
As members of a country whose average population will approach 105 million in 2040, our primary goal must of course be to rise rapidly to the position of a self-sufficient country. The difficult process of the pandemic, and it is far too early to say that we have completely left it behind, in fact showed us that we need to put back on the table many things we had ignored.
We have seen with our own eyes how dependence on the outside and the global system are prone to sudden lock-up, both economically and commercially, in the face of unexpected shocks. We have witnessed that dependence on particular regions of the world in inputs, supply and logistics has in fact developed an artificial theory of economic superiority. Four years ago, that is, in my first days in office, when there was no such crisis environment, I underlined certain matters: let us recall them once again.
- I had said that money, far beyond being a means of exchange, is becoming a commodity in its own right, indeed a promissory note with future promise. And that this would take money away from being turned into the strength of a country. Indeed, the reality today of a derivatives market swollen with the money that money buys (foreign currency) in fact reminds us of the critical importance of production.
- On the other hand, another matter I have always voiced is the fact that a country's monetary power is determined by that country's investment and production power. Policies constructed through financial markets unfortunately remain insufficient in solving real economic problems. Because the two operate through separate methods and, more importantly, through separate variables. If inflation today is a candidate to become the common problem not only of our country but of the whole world, at its root lie the inadequacy of our production planning, our distancing from the countryside, the distorted social culture we have experienced in the name of urbanization, low production, and of course the economic order in which countries far from being able to be self-sufficient, and we must add ourselves to them, try to maintain their external dependence. In short, not only we but many countries are trying to turn the mill with carried water.
- Another subject I emphasized was the commodity crisis awaiting us. It was the end of 2017 when I first voiced this. Of course this was not a prophecy; it was the result of reading the current situation and conjuncture correctly, developing a multi-disciplinary perspective and making a sound strategic analysis of the future. The commodity crisis awaiting us has finally materialized not only at the level of manufacturing industry inputs but at the same time, and unfortunately, in agricultural output as well.
- Finally there was, of course, the problem of the irregular rainfall and drought occurring as a result of climate change and the consequent decline in yield or in quantity in the harvest. This was a factor that would affect to the first degree not only agricultural production but at the same time livestock breeding (particularly in terms of the feed industry). Rising feed prices and the difficulties in accessing quality feed have been reflected in the quality of animal products and have unfortunately driven our farmers away from livestock breeding.
Esteemed guests,
The Agriculture Report prepared from this perspective penetrates into very critical capillaries and warns us against the great danger that is approaching. Of course, the essence of agriculture is seed production. Humankind achieved its transition from gathering to agriculture through plant breeding and the manipulation of plant seeds into a usable form, that is, by natural genetic means. Yet the point we have reached today has unfortunately begun to carry out natural genetic transformation by artificial means, that is, through the gene revolution, for the sake of more produce.
Our report recounts the history and the importance of seed production and the transformations it has undergone in the historical process down to the finest detail. Today, unfortunately, on the matter of seed imports, although Anatolia is accepted as almost the civilization of all seeds, and although there has been a %50 increase in the last 10 years, it does not present a good picture. Against imports at a level of USD 199.5 million according to the 2020 data, our taking an export share of USD 162 million is not enough.
However, one gratifying situation is that awareness of seed production is beginning to increase in our country. We can understand this simply from the increase in the number of our companies working in this field. Seed companies, which numbered 832 in 2018, rose to 1,023 in 2021. What is essential for us is to increase seed quality, to protect natural seed production and particularly our native seeds, and to include them, with the Turkish stamp, in the class of high value-added products within our export potential. The future of seed production in the world is the scene of work in which scientific developments are used most intensively and which is supported in particular by genetic engineering.
We need to devote far more time and resources to spreading this in our country as well and to the breeding and genetic yield-improvement work on plants unique to our country, most of which have the status of raw material in the pharmaceutical industry. Yet there is a known fact that humankind is obliged to achieve plant breeding and to increase its effectiveness in order to feed its growing population.
Türkiye must address the matter of seed registration in particular with the same seriousness. To explain it with figures, as of January 2021 Türkiye has reached a total of 12,931 registrations, comprising 4,625 in field crops, 6,536 in vegetables, 1,538 in fruit and vines and 232 fruit trees; yet this is of course not enough for such fertile lands.
Esteemed guests,
In terms of agricultural economy Türkiye ranks first in Europe and tenth in the world by public sector. Since agricultural production depends to a significant extent on climatic conditions, however much labour and capital are increased in production, the quantity of production may not increase at the same rate. In this respect, informing our farmers about climate change, establishing production facilities compatible with the new conditions and increasing the farmer's capacity to use technology are factors that support the increase of harvest yields in crop production.
Our fundamental problem here is not only the climatic conditions but the fact that the rural population that would carry out crop production is continuously tending to decline. As we set out in the Smart Agricultural Cities Model that we announced on 14 October 2020, we as MÜSİAD believe that if a life at urban standards can also be provided for the rural population, at least the employment-related dimension of the production shortfalls we face in the coming second century can be prevented, and we will have brought our entrepreneurs into a more abundant and beneficial production process within a more professional field of management. In our report you will find both the information on this subject and the course of crop production by years in main groups and sub-groups. The figures obtained in fact confirm our thesis.
Esteemed guests,
As is also stated in the report, great duties fall to us here. In particular, it is necessary to provide suitable financial conditions for producers who will engage in agricultural production; to keep areas such as meadows, pastures, water basins and forests closed to non-agricultural demands so that the ecosystem is not threatened by sectors such as industry and construction; to bring together public-private sector and university collaborations, particularly in quality seed production, under the leadership of widespread NGOs such as ourselves and to share the results with producers; to support start-ups devoted solely to agriculture or agricultural venture funds and agricultural investment funds; to provide legal regulations that will reduce the exposure of our companies engaging in agricultural production to exchange rate movements in order to prevent external dependence; to make correct and appropriate regulations for wholesale markets, natural warehouses, licensed warehouses, commodity exchanges and futures markets in order to prevent product losses, and to increase these; and to establish special R&D centres dedicated to this in order to bring our plant genetic resources into the economy within a natural balance.
With little time left before the second century of our Republic, how well do we know our country? How accurate is the information we have about the productivity or the capacity of the lands and the natural resources on which we live? The time has come to face this. First of all, let us accept that although we are an agricultural country, we are not a country with sufficient water.
Although we have a great many rivers and underground water resources, their legal rights, their useful lives, the state of the water footprint in the basins or plains they irrigate in terms of the productivity and the continuity of production, and the drawing up of agricultural production and origin maps not for the country as a single whole but for almost every region in our country, the redefinition of conditions not only in crop production but also in animal production and forest production, are realities to which we can no longer close our eyes.
While this subject was not being discussed in Türkiye, we as MÜSİAD created a new field of work on medicinal and aromatic plants with the committees we established two years before this report, and we underlined the fact that this new door opening to Türkiye in the world competition market must be used well. Both the collaborations we established with universities and the companies set up through the connection we provided with the public sector in fact constituted an example of academia-public-industry cooperation under the roof of an NGO in this brand-new field full of opportunities. We briefly named one of these committees of ours AKS, that is, connection.
Esteemed guests,
I too am an industrialist who engages in agricultural production and works with its outputs. When you act with an R&D and Ur-Ge mindset, you can provide very serious and important inputs. I also produce a product that has recently shown a success reaching % 40 in many immune system disorders, including corona, and that furthermore enables the regeneration of many organs, chiefly the liver, after chemotherapy. This was a subject I worked on with my team for more than ten years and we achieved it with the support of our academic professors. We are now on the eve of putting it on the market as a food supplement.. We manufactured this product from whey. That is to say, we have seen what can be achieved even from substances that are regarded as the lowest waste of animal production but are in fact very valuable, when you bring them together with scientific techniques.
Livestock breeding is in fact our country's new advantage and even its trump card in the world market. Look, after the pandemic, a Turkish goods label and its local products, which will take the place of the shaken perception particularly of China and Asia, will carry us to very different positions in both European and world markets. What matters here is not to alienate farmers because of production costs. In both dairy and meat products, including purchase prices, capital must be increased and the capacity and conditions of integrated facilities improved so that beef and dairy livestock breeding may develop further and product quality in particular may be raised. It is essential to support pasture and sacrificial livestock breeding, breed improvement, combined breeds, crop production and women's cooperatives especially for products of origin, and to encourage the farmer to reinvest in their high value-added products.
Esteemed guests,
Towards the end of my speech, I would like to conclude by sharing some notes about the future from the report in your hands, in which the agricultural road map of the Türkiye of 2023 is written.
The pace of development of agricultural production in the world is many times ahead of ours. Although there is a Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine in almost every one of our universities, very few of these faculties are attached to an institute or to a laboratory financed by the private sector. Their graduates, for their part, prepare for examinations for professions unrelated to their education. This is in a sense a loss of qualified people and a waste of education. Moreover, if the faculties of agriculture are the jugular vein of our agricultural future, they deserve a far more qualified selection of students and a far more qualified education. In addition, not only agricultural engineers are needed: the Agricultural Vocational High Schools that will meet the need for intermediate staff must also be made more widespread and their quality increased.
Not only in agricultural engineering; the study of subjects such as productive fertilizer, pesticides and seeds must also be encouraged in the departments of biotechnology and genetic engineering.
Agricultural product data is not kept in detail in our country. In this context, a Türkiye Agricultural and Rural Development Bank needs to be established.
Agricultural production, just like industrial goods, deserves to have its share of technological change. This has two dimensions: using technology in agricultural production, and accelerating R&D activities in the development of agricultural production. One thing is clear: developing genetic diversity without manipulating it and developing far more productive production models from it will cause us to move beyond being a country that feeds itself and to enter the class of countries that feed the world.
In order to develop agricultural capacity in our country, the agricultural technology sector must be institutionalized and, for this purpose, technology transfer offices and technoparks must be supported.
One of the most critical issues in agriculture is to carry out production planning correctly. Evaluating regional conditions well and planning, several years in advance, production suited to the climate and soil structure of each region and, where possible, of high added value, will both give us an export advantage and prevent the loss of soil and time.
Türkiye is one of the countries where family farms are most widespread. Providing the necessary support policies to ensure the sustainability of these farms will facilitate continuity in agriculture and its transfer between generations.
Not only family farms: moving, where necessary, to a system of large farms through the consolidation of small-scale lands and securing the advantage of scale in agricultural production as well is still one of Türkiye's most important problems.
I would like to repeat a matter I have always voiced: it is now essential that the grants and incentives given by the state be monitored in agricultural production as well, and that the concept of incentive productivity be perceived and accepted as a component of a production-investment-trade synchronization.
In the green economy model, also called low-carbon production, it is essential to prevent the waste or the pollution of agricultural resources, to construct industrial production with respect for land structures in a way that does not disrupt agricultural production, and to build the infrastructure required for this, that is, Organized Industrial Zones that respect nature. We as MÜSİAD have completed the first prototype of our project of medium-scale industrial estates that respect nature from their energy to their waste management, which we have named SME Incubation Centres. This model has been accepted by the Ministry of Industry and Technology as a standard for all other medium-scale industrial estates.
Not only collective agriculture but also precision agriculture and even soilless agriculture practices: the developments in the world over the last twenty years must be followed, and areas for agricultural production must be built, whether enclosed or open, even in urban environments. Indeed, as a part of city life, kits with which agricultural work can be carried out in narrow spaces at home or in front of the house must be produced. In this way city dwellers can be persuaded both of a production consciousness before consumption and of how productive and enjoyable a job agricultural production is.
In the same way, vertical farming brings with it a series of practices that are the exact opposite of the traditional farm application and covers agricultural activities carried out in tall buildings with a small footprint. In the near future this practice will reshape both urban agriculture and greenhouse cultivation.
Artificial intelligence, which has entered every area of our lives, must also be used in agricultural production. With robots and unmanned aerial vehicles, many problems (infestation, problems caused by excessive fertilizer, irrigation problems) can be detected in advance and prevented before they grow through on-site intervention. In the same way, another concept that has entered our lives, such as the internet of things, will expand its field of use in the very near future, even though it is still very new in agriculture.
Esteemed guests,
Even though agriculture and livestock breeding touch our lives at such a vital point, they unfortunately continue at the centrifuge of the global power centres and of multinational companies. Their involvement in production to such a degree both triggers the diseases of the new century by lowering food quality in the face of profitability and, most importantly, plays with the health of our children. For this reason, a country that cannot itself produce what comes to its own table is doomed to lose.
However, in this situation, closing the doors to multinational structures will not be a correct and reasonable solution. Establishing our own multinational national structures, being open to cooperation with them in the sense of solving global problems and taking part in person in the activities of supranational organizations will make us an active player of this game rather than a spectator.
Let us not forget: agriculture means our future. It means our children, our generations, our health. We may perhaps be able to live without the mobile phones in our hands, but a human being cannot endure hunger and thirst. This is a harbinger that the real struggle of the new century will be based on water and food products. We must take our precautions from now on.
I thank you once again for your patience and your presence.
On behalf of myself and of my institution, I thank once again all my esteemed academic professors who contributed, the Chairman of our Rural Development Committee, Mr. Abdullah Eriş, the group publication director and our editors who contributed to the preparation of this report, our colleagues who carried out the interior and exterior design, and our secretariat general.
Abdurrahman Kaan
President of MÜSİAD