Sedat Karaman, Zeki Gokalp
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Land consolidation, land size, on-farm development services, Turkey.
In Turkey, agricultural lands are mostly composed of small, fragmented and scattered plots. Size of agricultural lands usually decreased through inheritance, then productivity of these lands decreased in time. As the number of plots increases, the area to be allocated for plot boundaries, roads, agricultural roads and irrigation canals also increases. Such an improper structure should be rearranged and efficient time, labor and capital use should be provided with modern agricultural practices. The objective in such practices should also be the optimum utilization of agricultural inputs to improve efficiency and yield levels in production activities and ultimately to improve life standards of rural people. Agricultural infrastructure should be rehabilitated to meet ever-increasing food demands of increasing population and to meet raw material needs of various industries. Rehabilitation of agricultural infrastructure requires integration and implementation of several inter-related economic policies. Among such policies, land consolidation and on-farm development services are the leading ones. In this study, present land consolidation practices of Turkey were generally assessed and recommendations were provided for better, reliable and sustainable implementations.
