Hard-hit by inflation and climate change, Turkish farmers scrap use of fertilizers

Farmers in Turkey have been hard-hit by a steep rise in input costs and have had to scrap the use of fertilizers or turn to products that do not require fertilizer.

Friday January 21 2022 10:32 am

Aynur Tekin / DUVAR

According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), food prices increased by 43.8 percent in 2021, and while average food expenditure in Turkey was 24.2 percent in 2020, this rate was 14.48 percent in the European Union.

The pandemic, which has induced a disruption in supply chains, as well as climate change, have caused a rise in the price of raw materials.

Mehmet Akın Doğan, the president of the Yüreğir Chamber of Agriculture in Adana said that fertilizer prices have increased by 100 percent in 2021. He maintained that due to this increase, many farmers in Adana no longer use fertilizers in barley and wheat production.

He added that the prices of fertilizers, fuel oil, electricity, seeds and pesticides have all increased dramatically and that farmers were devastated. He said that this large-scale rise in prices has not been reflected in food prices.

According to research conducted by the Credit Registry Bureau of Turkey (KKB), which interviewed 1,066 who work in the farming sector across 28 provinces, the proportion of people satisfied with their income had fallen from 31 percent in 2020 to 19 percent in 2021.

The proportion of people who emphasized that they were unsatisfied with their income increased from 40 percent to 56 percent.

Mahmut Demiryeri, a farmer in Hilvan, Şanlıurfa, who has perpetuated his grandfather’s job and grows wheat, barley and lentils, said that he could only buy 3 tons of fertilizer with the same amount he could buy 17 tons last year.

“I bought diesel oil for 7 liras back in September. Now it’s 14 liras. The lentil fertilizer we used last year cost 100 liras, whereas this year it costs 250 liras,” the farmer said.

According to TÜİK, wheat and barley production decreased by 13.9 and 30.7 percent statistically, in 2021. Demiryeri said that in Hilvan, farmers tend to produce lentils instead of wheat and barley as lentil production does not require fertilizers.

He also said that a drought had increased the irrigation costs though farmers could not afford to irrigate their crops due to the rising costs of electricity.