ANKARA: Turkey will implement a new subsidy program for agricultural products in 2017 with an expected annual budget of nearly $4 billion, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS). The program will be known as the National Agriculture Project. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim first announced details about the program on Nov. 14. The project is expected to cover a new allocation system for agricultural supports for crops and livestock, with Turkey divided into 941 agricultural basins based on climate and soil to subsidize specific crops for each zone.
According to the FAS, the National Agriculture Project will subsidize 19 crops determined as strategic crops by the Turkish government. The crops include wheat, barley, corn, rye, oats, triticale, cotton, paddy rice, tea, tobacco, lentils, dry beans, chickpeas, safflower, soybean, sunflower, canola, hazelnuts, olives and forage crops. Only wheat and forage crops will be subsidized in every basin, the FAS said, with farmer groups lobbying for changes to the crops in the basin lists.
“In the scope of the new policy, all subsidy payments will be given in two installments per year, which aims to reduce bureaucracy for farmers, who formerly received payments in many installments per year,” the FAS noted in the report. “Also, the Turkish government will pay half the cost of diesel. The contribution for diesel will be calculated according to which crops are grown.”
