As we have stressed in many of our articles, there is a truth that all of us, from our politicians to our universities, from our business people to every member of our society, need to recognise: AGRICULTURE IS EVERYTHING.
We will keep raising our voice, tirelessly and untiringly, so that everyone understands this truth. However, I fear that our society will not see this truth until a disaster befalls it. As time works against us, I hope we wake up before it is too late.
Our agricultural activities, as everywhere else in the world, are declining day by day. The number of our farmers is falling, and no new young farmers are coming through. Those who do produce cannot find workers for their fields.
We, meanwhile, live in a digital world in cities, cafés, coffee houses and homes. Every day we criticise the government, find fault with our country, consider our earnings insufficient, want more and complain that we cannot make money. Yet even if a daily wage of 1000 TL or more is offered for working 5-6 hours a day in the field, nobody goes.
Our country, which possesses the lands where the first agriculture in world history was practised, must develop its agriculture; we must produce agricultural R&D and product development, high technology and machinery that requires less manpower in agriculture.
Taking the successes we have achieved in the defence industry as a reference, we already have everything needed to do much more in agriculture: our human resources, knowledge, experience, experts, scientists, industrial and technological infrastructure, the incentives and support of our state and, most importantly, a market for the products.
Two important steps need to be taken for Türkiye to develop in the fields of agriculture and technology: AGRICULTURAL TECHNOPARKS AND SILICON VALLEYS.
Agricultural technoparks are technology parks where agricultural production, research, development, training and advisory activities are carried out together. The aim of these parks is to support agricultural innovation, encourage agricultural entrepreneurship, increase agricultural productivity and quality, raise the added value of agricultural products and develop agricultural exports. In Türkiye, agricultural technoparks should be established as soon as possible through cooperation between the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, universities, local governments, the private sector and civil society organisations.
Silicon valleys, on the other hand, are regions where companies, research centres, universities, venture capital funds and other stakeholders operating in high-technology fields such as information technologies, software, hardware, biotechnology, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence and robotics are concentrated.
The aim of these regions is to support technological innovation, encourage technology-based entrepreneurship, develop technological products and services, increase technological competitiveness and develop technology exports. In Türkiye, silicon valleys should be established as soon as possible through cooperation between the Ministry of Industry and Technology, universities, local governments, the private sector and civil society organisations.
Agricultural technoparks and silicon valleys offer great opportunities both for developing our agricultural production and for producing high value-added technologies. In this way, our dependence on imports will decrease, our exports will increase, and jobs and employment will be provided for thousands of our young people. For this reason, we must put these two steps into practice as soon as possible.
Türkiye's agricultural export target for 2023 is 50 billion dollars. However, this target looks difficult to achieve. For this reason, new projects such as agricultural technology parks and silicon valleys should be launched. These projects could make a major contribution to our economy between 2030 and 2040. We could reduce our imports by 20-30 billion dollars, raise our exports to 100 billion dollars and create jobs for 25,000 people in the agricultural sector. In order not to miss these opportunities, we must change the current order and take urgent steps.
Author: Hakan Yüksel
