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Turkey, drought alarm
Turkey
Friday 27 June 2008
There is alarm for drought in Turkey. This is confirmed by a study conducted by the Eurasian Strategic Studies Center (Asam) and data provided by the Turkish Union of Agricultural Chambers on the basis of which was shown in the period between October 2007 and last May when precipitations across the country decreased by an average of 15% with a peak of 44% in South-Eastern Anatolia.
The drought is causing not only the collapse of domestic production of some important raw food materials like wheat (-20% between 2007 and 2008) and barley (-30% between 2007 and 2008), but in the provinces of Southern Turkey we talk now of a real disaster because the production in that region fell by 80 / 90% compared to the corresponding period in 2007.
The study of the Asam highlights the fact that at the end of last January more than 500 thousand people have left agriculture and that agriculture still occupies 23.2% of the workforce of the nation.
The drought is causing not only the collapse of domestic production of some important raw food materials like wheat (-20% between 2007 and 2008) and barley (-30% between 2007 and 2008), but in the provinces of Southern Turkey we talk now of a real disaster because the production in that region fell by 80 / 90% compared to the corresponding period in 2007.
The study of the Asam highlights the fact that at the end of last January more than 500 thousand people have left agriculture and that agriculture still occupies 23.2% of the workforce of the nation.
