Ankara Chamber of Industry (ASO) held its March Assembly Meeting. Speaking at the meeting, ASO President Nurettin Özdebir made a remarkable call regarding the agriculture sector. Stating that being self-sufficient in agriculture is of vital importance for a country, Özdebir noted that the agricultural sector should be accepted as a ‘national security issue’. Emphasizing that it is essential to consider agricultural policies with a holistic approach and to switch to scientific agriculture policies, Özdebir said, “I think we should switch to the 'contractual agriculture' model that brings benefits to both the producer, the industrialist and the consumer. Contract farming by the state can also provide an important advantage.”
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRY HAS BEEN ESSENTIAL
Underlining that it is very important to make land and product planning due to the supply problem in some foodstuffs, Özdebir added, “It is necessary to make the Basin Based Production and Support Model mandatory. The operability of this model will provide significant advantages in terms of agriculture and economy of the country. Thanks to this model, effective production planning, productivity increase, profit increase of the producer, supply-demand balance will be ensured and international competitiveness in agriculture will increase. The establishment of the agricultural industry has now become a necessity.”
CURRENT DEFICIT RISES TO 20 BILLION DOLLARS AGAIN
Speaking about the high figures in the current account deficit, Özdebir said, “On the current account deficit side, we saw the highest monthly deficit of recent years, which is 7,1 billion dollars, and rose to 20 billion dollars on an annual basis again. The current account deficit, which has become the most important economic problem of the Turkish economy after 1980, has grown exponentially over the years and has become chronic today. This problem is specific to the Turkish economy; There are structural reasons such as insufficient savings, increasing foreign trade deficit, increasing dependency of exports on imports, and increasing foreign dependency in energy consumption.”