Turkey's livestock sector: Production, consumption and policies

C Akbay and I Boz

Kahramanmaras Sutcu Imam University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Agricultural Economics,
Kahramanmaras, Turkey
cakbay@ksu.edu.tr

Abstract

The Turkish livestock sector has considerable potential and is an important part of the agricultural sector and economy. Livestock constitute approximately 25% of the value of all agricultural production and contribute to the economic development of rural households. The main objectives of this study were to determine trends in production and consumption patterns of livestock products in Turkey and identify opportunities for developing livestock strategies.

Seventy percent of the rural farms in Turkey own livestock. Most of these livestock farmers rely on their livestock for income by selling of milk and animals as well as fertilizer for crops. Although livestock productivity has been increasing in the last two decades, the number of large and small ruminants has decreased. Although livestock production has been decreasing, lower income and high consumer prices relative to other countries have not generally encouraged consumption of animal products. Per capita consumption of milk and red meat products has decreased and meat consumption has shifted over time from beef, veal, lamp, mutton and goat to a greater consumption of poultry and fish due to changing tastes, costs and income. Moreover, a further decline in the number of small and large ruminants may also reduce the sustainable potential of Turkey's agricultural sector.

Key words: Turkey, livestock, production, consumption, food

Introduction

Turkey is located between Europe and Asia, and unique for having promoted a large and sustainable agricultural sector. It's a main producer of agricultural products and one of the few self-sufficient countries in the world in terms of agricultural production, especially for production of food items. It is also one of the richest and largest countries in terms of land: Almost 16% of the country's land area consists of meadows and pastures, whereas 26% is forest and woodland and 31% is arable lands (FAO 2004). Because of its suitable land and climate, Turkey has a great capacity to grow many kinds of crops and animals. Although, since 1950, both agricultural and cultivated lands have increased by almost 40% and 70%, respectively, fallow land, pasture and meadows have decreased by 78 and 70%, respectively.

Historically, the agricultural sector has been Turkey's largest employer and a major contributor to the country's gross domestic production, industrial growth and exports. However, as the country has developed, the relative importance of agricultural sector has declined, while the position of industry and the service sectors have increased. For example, between 1980 and 2003, the share of agricultural products in exports declined from 57% to 7%, while industrial exports rose from 36% to 90%, signaling a wholesale shift from an agrarian to an industrial economy. Moreover, although agriculture accounts for less than 10% of the GDP, it employs more than 42% of national labor force in 2003 (SIS 2003).

Livestock and their products are major component in agriculture in the developing countries and provide direct cash income for many farmers. In these countries, animals are living bank for many farmers and critical to agricultural intensification via provision of power and manure for fertilizer and fuel (Sansoucy et al 1995). Livestock include ruminants for meat and milk, camels and equines for draught and poultry (chicken and turkeys) for eggs and meat. Poultry products are gaining importance and account for a major share of animal products in human diets in many countries (Nordblom et al 2005). Animal foods are an important source of food particularly high quality protein, minerals, vitamin and micronutrients and have also major importance for optimizing human performance in chronically mild to moderately malnourished populations (Diaz-Briquets et al 1992; Sansoucy et al 1995).

In Turkey, on the other hand, livestock sector has a considerable potential and is an important part of agricultural sector and economy. The Livestock products, including meat, milk, eggs, honey, wool, and hides, play a significant role in the Turkish economy. Animal husbandry constituted approximately 25% of agricultural production value in 2002 (SIS 2003). The sector's contribution to farm income is substantial, and activities related to livestock production and marketing are important to the economic development of rural areas in Turkey (Yurdakul et al 1999). In parts of country where agriculture and farming are limited because of land shape or limited land and high number of population, households make their living with animals, especially in Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia. However, in these regions, mostly traditional techniques are used, and the results are not much satisfactory when compared to developed countries.

Providing an adequate and balanced diet for the population, and in particular increasing per capita consumption of animal protein, has long been a challenge in a country like Turkey which, over the last 60 years, has persistently experienced high net rates of population growth (Anil 1995). The most important objective of agricultural policies in Turkey according to Government's Five-Year Development Plans is to meet the nutritional needs of a rapidly growing population. As long-term goal, the government would like to see the consumption of animal protein brought up to levels closer to those of developed countries. The data in Table 1 shows the difference in consumption patterns between Turkey and developed and developing countries. In 2003, per capita consumption of meat, milk and fish in Turkey were 24.2, 48.5 and 35.1 percent of that in developed countries and 67.6, 215.0 and 58.0 percent of that in developing countries.

In recent years, Turkey's livestock sector has displayed three clear trends: (1) declining number of large and small ruminants; (2) decreasing per capita consumption of animal products; and (3) increasing productivity. Livestock development in Turkey, especially in lower-income regions, needs to operate within the overall development objectives of reducing rural poverty, promoting rural development and enhancing sustainability. The main objectives of this study are to determine trends on production and consumption patterns of livestock products in Turkey and identify opportunities for developing livestock strategies.

This paper is structured as follows: The first section includes the introduction. An evaluation of livestock sector in Turkey is presented in the second section. The third section describes livestock population and production trends. Turkish food and livestock consumption behavior is presented in the fourth section. The last section summarizes our concluding remarks and policies.

Livestock Sector in Turkey

Livestock products are an important source of household income for many farmers and households in rural areas. For small farmers, livestock products such as cattle, sheep and goat generate income and ensure food security for these households because an important amount of their incomes comes from the sales of animal and milk.

In Turkey, the family owned farm is the basic unit of agricultural production, and family members provide most of the farm labor. The information on the number and size of holdings are inferred from agricultural censuses, which are conducted every 10 years on the basis of large sample surveys (Togan et al 2004). Historically, the total number of farms in Turkey has been decreasing while the average size of farms has been increasing after 1990s. In 2001, there were 3.08 million farms with an average of 59.9 acres per farm, compared to 1990 when 4.09 million producers farmed an average of 56,8 acres per farm. Number of farms which produced only crop products represented 30% of the total firms in 2001. Number of farms which produce both crop and animal products constitute the largest group of farms, comprising 70% of all farms, and contain 30% of all land in farms. In addition, the statistics in 2001 show that 25% of all farms were engaged only in crop production and 96% of all engaged in crop production and animal husbandry, while the reminder 4% were engaged only on animal production. However, the number of large ruminants per farm decreased from 6.0 in 1980 to 4.6 in 1990 and 3.6 in 2001. The number of small ruminants per farm increased from 39.8 in 1980 to 42.1 in 1990 and decreased to 12.8 in 2003. The land and livestock owned are also distributed unequally. 1.8% of the farmers do not own any land. Small farmers (<50 acres), which constitute 65% of the farmers, own little over 21.3% of the land, less than 50% of the sheep and goat and 49% of the cattle. The larger farmers (> 200 acres) constitute 5.7% of the holdings, own 34.2% of the land, 14.5% of the sheep and goat and 10.1% of the cattle (Table 2).

In Turkey, Cattle, goats and sheep fulfill multiple roles in generating income and ensuring food security as well as generate employment and limit rural depopulation. Moreover, the meat sector provides employment for slaughter, marketing and processing. For instance, in the rural area of the East Anatolia, 78% of cows were dual purpose compared to 48% in the Southern Anatolia. Livestock give increased economic stability to farm household, acting as a cash buffer (small stock), a capital reserve (large animals) and a hedge against inflation. In a mixed farming system, livestock reduce the risk through diversification of production and income sources and therefore a much greater ability to deal with seasonal crop failures and other natural calamities.

Relative importance of livestock production in Turkey is given in Table 3. As it is seen in table, the share of livestock production is rather low as compared to that in the developed countries, and vegetal production constitutes the major share of total production. In 2002, the share of plant products in the total agricultural production value is 69.3%, that of livestock products is 25.3%, for fisheries, it is 2.6% and 2.9 % for forestry. However, the share of livestock in total agricultural production in developed countries is about 60-70%.

Livestock Population and Production Trends

Historically, livestock inventory data show that the number of large ruminant and small ruminant animals were increasing before the 1980s but have decreased since the early 1980s (Table 4). Given the Turkish dietary preferences, sheep have relatively high value and increased in number from 34.5 million head in 1960 to 46 million head in 1980 but declined to 27 million head in 2003 (Table 5). The number of goats declined during the same period from 24 million to 7 million because of grazing restrictions in forests and government policies encouraging herd reduction. The use of tractors probably has caused the decline in number of oxen. Cattle, which have risen in value as farmers strive to meet the growing urban demand for milk and meat, increased in number from 12.4 million head in 1960 to 15 million in 1980, but decreased to 10.4 million head in 2003. In contrast to the red meat sector, the numbers of poultry and beehives have steadily increased during the same period. Poultry products are gaining importance and account for a major share of animal products in human diets in Turkey as in many other countries. By 2000, Turkey had 264.5 million head of poultry, almost four times higher than the number in 1990.

Regarding the number of animals and level of yields per animal, it should be clearly stated that yields were rather low as compared to the developed countries. Carcass yield data for cattle slaughter indicates that a substantial growth in yield has taken place since the early 1980s. For instance, according to Turkish State Institution of Statistics, the average carcass weight of cattle has increased from 120.5 kg in 1984-86 to 176.7 in 1997-99, an average growth of nearly 3 percent annually. This number is approximately 2 and 1.5 times less than USA (247 kg) and Europe (320), respectively and slightly higher than Africa (133 kg). Average lamb carcass yield has increased from 12.1 kg in 1984 to 14.9 kg in 1998, an average annual increase of 1.6 percent. However, this number is well below the USA (33 kg) and slightly higher than Europe (14 kg). It is commonly accepted that per-cow milk yields in Turkey have also grown since the early 1980s. However, per-cow milk yield in Turkey is still low (1567 kg) and approximately 4.6 times less than USA (7227 kg) and 3.4 times less than Germany (5320). Average honey yield per beehive has increased from 5.3 kg in 1960 to 17.9 kg in 2002. Although the number of beehives had increased only 3 times between 1960 and 2003, honey production increased almost 10 times during the same period (Topuz 2000). Despite the significant growth in carcass and milk yields, the productivity increases have not been sufficient to prevent reduction in output potential caused by declining animal inventories, particularly in the sheep sector (Koc et al 2001). Moreover, although yields were growing, traditional methods kept the livestock industry from achieving its considerable potential. Only 20 percent of cattle, for example, were high yielding variety breeds.

Most livestock generally are grazed on public lands on a first-come first-serve basis and provided with little or no additional supplements. Supplemental feeding of forages is limited because of the production policy which favors field crop production. Since grazing is unregulated, public lands tend to be severally overgrazed which only further aggravates the problem. Moreover, the increasing grain cultivation lands resulted overgrazing of grasslands, wasteland, forests and mountain meadows, which damaged the soil, and less productive animals.

Pastures play a very important role for ruminant feeding. About 69% of crude protein, 62% of starch and 33% of roughage needs of the ruminant livestock are provided by pasture (Karagoz 2004). The rest of the feed is obtained from cultivated forages, concentrates, cereal and grain legume straw, agro-industry by-products and residues. The share of the forage crop production area in total arable lands is about 3%. Although there has been a slightly increase in recent years, this figure is far behind the desire level (Karagoz 2004). Even if farmers have no land, most village families own a few animals. Rural families raise livestock on land that lacks alternative uses. Few farmers integrate livestock production with cropping activities or match feed supply to their animals' requirement. In recent years, there has been a trend toward raising cattle in open-air commercial feedings in Western Turkey (Sarigedik 2003).

A number of forces have conspired over the past two decides to bring about a continuous decline in Turkish sheep and goat herd, which is forecast to continue declining through 2010, despite improved markets for sheep and goat meet. The first of these is the nature of Turkish production, which is small-scale and heavily reliant of domestic breeds, which though better adapted to the harsh climate of Eastern Turkey, are much less productive than western breeds. More important in the short-term, is the fact that roughly half the national herd is located in Eastern Turkey, where continuing unrest has made animal husbandry in general difficult. These conditions have created a situation in which improved prices have actually provided an incentive to producers to increase slaughter in order to cash in, rather than withholding sheep to rebuild herd numbers (Sarigedik 2003).