Environmental disasters related risks that may negatively affect vulnerable groups are addressed in the Climate Change Strategy covering 2010-2023. In this framework, the vulnerability of groups living below the poverty line to environmental disasters will be minimised by combating agricultural drought, developing risk maps and implementation plans related to the impact of climate change on infrastructure, health, and urbanisation. The elderly and persons with disabilities are among the groups of special focus in terms of the policies for vulnerable groups of the society. Various policies are implemented to integrate persons with disabilities into the labour force as well as remove the elderly from poverty or ease the burden on their families by means of social security and assistance services. Aimed at increasing the number of home healthcare services to the elderly without having to leave their environment and improving institutional healthcare services, YADES provides local administrations with financial support funded by the state. The number of persons with disabilities were employed in public institutions was 5,777 in 2002 and increased to 53,017 as of 2018. A quota system is in place in our country for the employment of persons with disabilities. There is an incentive scheme of insurance premiums for employers who employ persons with disabilities. Care services for persons with disabilities are delivered in various forms such as home care or care provided by public institutions as well as private healthcare institutions. In this context, 6.7 billion TL (1.39 billion USD) was spent for 500,000 people through home care services as of 2018. Care and rehabilitation services are provided at residential care institutions to persons with disabilities who have no families or cannot be cared at family home. As of March 2019, 7,017 persons with disabilities are provided with care services at 99 Barrier-Free Life Centres. For the institutional care services for persons with disabilities, transition started through the so called “home of hope” model where persons with disabilities would live in small groups at homes within the society. As of March 2019, 149 homes of hope and 99 care and rehabilitation centres were institutionalized. The number of special care centres is 249. In addition, daytime care services are provided to persons with disabilities in 48 institutions including 8 independent ones. NEXT STEPS: The following policies will be implemented in the upcoming years to achieve SDG 1: • Analysing various types of social assistance and making the social assistance more effective, • Conducting programmes that will improve the capacities of social policy developers and implementers, • Preparing more data disaggregation concerning the poorest groups and designing policy tools based on the data in question to enable to reach out to these groups, • Developing new types of social security services and encourage adoption of flexible work to reduce shadow economy and integrate social beneficiaries into the labour force, • Creating an effective system to monitor social assistance policies and practices of local administrations and make these compatible with those of the central government. 54 TURKEY’s 2nd VNR 2019 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS “Strong Ground towards Common Goals”
5.2. SDG 2. END HUNGER, ACHIEVE FOOD SECURITY AND IMPROVED NUTRITION AND PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
With regard to achieving the targets
listed under SDG 2, Turkey attained levels
better compared to the international
averages on eliminating poverty,
improving income distribution, increasing
agricultural production, and ending child
malnutrition through the instrumentality
of economic and social policies, and by
the effects of the structural initiatives taken and implemented
countrywide.
POLICIES
In addition to NDPs and strategic plans of relevant public
institutions, key policy documents on SDG 2 include the
National Rural Development Strategy and Action Plan,
Biotechnology Strategy and Action Plan, Strategy and Action
Plan for Combating Agricultural Drought in Turkey, Climate
Change Strategy and Action Plan.
The key components of the policy framework in line with
SDG 2 are as follows:
• Building an agricultural sector that uses natural resources
in a sustainable manner,
• Ensuring reduced poverty, improved income distribution and
social inclusion,
• Achieving broader participation in economic activities,
• Revisiting agricultural supports in terms of sustainable
production,
• Formulating mutually supportive healthcare and nutrition
policies,
• Eliminating poverty-induced food deprivation among
children and support early childhood development,
• Collecting periodic and interrelated data on food, healthcare
and nutrition, and improving data quality,
• Supporting access to food through social policies,
• Improving efficiency in agricultural production,
• Improving living conditions in rural areas,
• Increasing effectiveness in product stock management so as
to ensure food security,
• Ensuring effective inspection for the safety agricultural and
food products,
• Addressing the size and efficiency-related problems of
agricultural enterprises,
• Improving agricultural insurance schemes based on risk
management,
• Conserving genetic resources and establishing gene banks,
• Supporting agricultural research and technology
development activities,
• Facilitating access to the market by producers’
organisations,
• Ensuring sustainable supply of domestic raw material in the
food industry at competitive prices and quality.
LEGISLATION
Our legislation, particularly the Law on Agriculture, covers
the matters of increasing income levels in rural areas,
supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, introducing
practices to improve animal and plant health, preventing rural
migration, and promoting good practices in agriculture as well
as regulating and improving organic agricultural production
and marketing in the framework of ensuring increased
agricultural productivity and more use of resilient agricultural
practices. Furthermore, promoting investment in agriculture
and guaranteeing the sustainability of agricultural activities
of farmers affected by natural disasters are regulated in
the relevant legislation. The current legislation in Turkey
also addresses maintaining ecological balance, increasing
agricultural productivity through higher soil and water quality,
and strengthening the structure of agricultural enterprises.
Actions in connection with collection, storage, production,
characterisation, evaluation, documentation and exchange of
plant, animal and aquatic genetic resources to safeguard the
genetic diversity of plans and animals, which is essential for
agriculture are also outlined in the legislation.
IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS AND IMPROVEMENT AREAS
SDG 2 is assessed on three focus areas: i. Access to adequate
food and meeting nutrition needs; ii. Increasing agricultural
productivity and resilient agricultural practices; and iii.
Conservation of genetic resources and traditional knowledge.
With regard to access to adequate food and meeting nutrition
needs, Turkey is faced with the same problems as developing
and developed countries. Since eating habits in the country
tend to vary depending on regional, seasonal, socio-economic
factors and differences between urban and rural areas,
Turkey’s major problem areas stand out as malnutrition,
nutritional quality, and over nutrition. In Turkey, only a small
portion of families are inadequately nourished in terms of
energy-rich nutrients. Although the total consumption of
proteins per person is sufficient, most of these proteins are
plant-based, whereas consumption of animal protein is rather
limited.
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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
“Strong Ground towards Common Goals”
Remarkable progress was achieved in the field of improving child nutrition by virtue of practices aimed at promoting breastfeeding, supplementary feeding micronutrient supplement programmes (iron and vitamin D supplements, iodised salt). Through these programmes, the prevalence of iron deficiency anaemia in children dropped from around 30% to 6.3%, and compared to mothers, a 50% decline was achieved in the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in children.23 However, there is room for improvement to achieve lower rates of children who suffer from or are at risk for micronutrient deficiencies. In Turkey, 96% of children receive breast milk at some point during infancy (2013 TNSA). 41.6% of infants are exclusively fed breast milk in the first six months of their lives. This is above the global average of 37%.24 Significant steps were taken to protect and improve health, including healthy eating habits and regular physical activity, through the programmes on nutrition and physical activities (Nutrition-Friendly Schools Programme, regulations on school canteens, school nutrition and physical activity education, Physical Fitness and Health Scorecard etc.) The Nutrition-Friendly Schools Programme aims to promote healthy eating habits and active living, and improve school environment and student health by supporting the good practices. The number of schools holding a Nutrition-Friendly School Certificate increased steadily from 1,225 in 2016 to 3,949 in 2017, 5,730 in 2018 and 11,866 as of the first quarter of 2019. Agricultural policies and support policies in this regard have been driven by demographic changes, economic development, and targets associated with rural poverty reduction and ensuring the necessary level of dietary diversity for good nutrition as well as the EU negotiation process and Word Trade Organization (WTO) commitments. To increase the effectiveness of the support policy, a basin- based support model was adopted; a number of actions were taken to gather sound agricultural statistics and improve the agricultural inventory; and comprehensive policy documents were drawn up to create the necessary infrastructure for rural development policies. 23 MoH-Research for Identifying the Current Situation with Iron and Vitamin D Deficiency in Infants and Children between 6 to 17 Months of Age and Developing New Intervention Programmes, 2011. 24 UNICEF State of the World’s Children Report, 2012. Based on the policies outlined in the Law on Agriculture issued in 2006, support funds provided in 2018 was as high as 14.5 billion TL (3 billion USD) and increased by 13.9% annually. For 2019, the figure for agricultural support funds is expected to reach 16.1 billion TL (2.9 billion USD). Further, ongoing campaigns on food banks and prevention of food waste and loss are expected to positively contribute to achieve improved food security. With regards to increasing agricultural productivity and resilient agricultural practices, Turkey has policies in place with special focus on research, development activities to improve agriculture employment, enterprise and size efficiency. Through structural changes in agriculture and regulations on food safety, remarkable progress was achieved in the sector compared to previous periods. Of the 23.4 million hectares of agricultural lands in Turkey, only around 5 million hectares accommodate irrigated farming while the rest depends on rain fed production. Therefore, the amount of yield is heavily affected by potential decrease in rainfall. On the other hand, 70 to 75% of yearly water consumption takes place on irrigated arable lands. Therefore, the threat posed by climate change to the agricultural sector needs to be addressed. Areas where there is room for improvement include increasing agricultural production to meet the needs of the growing population. These needs associated with dietary diversity, which are satisfied through domestic production. Additionally, action are also taken to mitigate drought and other disasters related to climate change, utilization of idle arable lands to further resolve rural poverty and dissemination of technological practices that would also foster productivity. 56 TURKEY’s 2nd VNR 2019 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS “Strong Ground towards Common Goals”
ZERO FOOD LOSS FROM FIELD TO TABLE SDG Targets 2.1; 2.3; 2.a; 12.2; 12.3; 12.5 Executing Entity Kerevitaş Gıda San. ve Tic. A.Ş. Start & End Dates 2013-Ongoing The project aims to minimise waste of vegetables and fruits from field to table. It ensures planned production by setting the production amount and price in advance through supply and demand optimization based on contract agriculture model.Food loss is reduced through: Increasing resistance to diseases by executing the full production process from seed planting to harvesting under the control of agricultural engineers, Supplying the farmers with certified sees appropriate for the region, Harvesting the crops at the appropriate time using harvest timers, Using modern harvesting machinery to harvest the crop speedily and transport to factories, Shortening the wait and storage times at factories, Taking measures to prevent product waste during classification, sorting, washing, freezing and packaging of the products at processing plants.Further, by milling the plant leftovers arising from the production, animal fodder is produced in the quantity to feed 3,480 cattle annually. Potato leftovers are used in renewable energy generation at biogas facilities to generate 7.3 million kWh of electricity annually. Agricultural enterprises in Turkey have an average size of 59 decares, representing smaller and more fragmented land holding than many countries. In an attempt to increase operational efficiency, efforts were undertaken to increase the average size of agricultural lost through land consolidation. Additionally, legislation was introduced to prevent fragmentation of agricultural enterprises as a result of inheritance. In this context, land consolidation efforts for 6.1 million hectares of land were finalised by the end of 2018, and land registration procedures were completed for a portion of 3.6 million hectares of these lands. Apart from the lands that have been consolidated, consolidation efforts are currently underway for an additional land of 2.1 million hectares. Further, improving the social security conditions of agricultural workers, and strengthening the practices associated with land ownership and transfers to ensure higher efficiency of agricultural land utilisation stand out as priority issues. The Regulation on Good Agricultural Practices (ITU) is aimed at promoting agricultural production that is not harmful to the environment, human and animal health, preserves natural resources, and ensure reliable supply of products through traceable and sustainable agriculture. In Turkey, enterprises have been receiving ITU certificates since 2007; and production is underway in 63 provinces across a total land of 616,000 hectares as of 2018. In addition, the Environmentally-based Agricultural Land Protection Program (ÇATAK) is designed as a scheme where farmers who prefer to use environmentally friendly techniques and cultural practices are provided with land- based support payments. Implemented in 58 provinces and across a total land of 626,000 decares, the project supports the farmers for a controlled period of 3 years. The introduction of the Law on Agricultural Insurance gave momentum and a new dimension to risk management in agriculture, and paved the way for remarkable progress in practices aiming to provide insurance premium support to indemnify for farmers’ losses. Food and Agricultural Product Markets Monitoring and Evaluation Committee was established to oversee food price increases. The role of the Committee is to identify the root causes of prices increases and develop measures to address them. It contributes to the efforts to achieve and limit price volatility as part of developing policies to address the structural issues facing agricultural production. In addition, the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market Registration System was introduced in 2012 to ensure that vegetable and fruit trade be centrally monitored, transactions registered, and an electronic database of sound and up-to-date information on the sector created. With regards to conservation of genetic resources and traditional knowledge, in addition to the arrangements introduced by the Environment Law, a set of deterrent sanctions have been imposed, and social awareness campaigns were implemented to raise awareness in the society. Through technical, scientific and economic partnership protocols signed with many countries in the field of agriculture, the capacity of agricultural production was strengthened, and a wide range of actions were taken for the conservation of food and agricultural gene resources. In addition to the existing mechanisms, the National Gene Bank and Herbarium was established in 2010 as Turkey’s second seed gene bank. While National Starter Culture Gene Bank was established in 2017 to protect biodiversity and guarantee food security for future generations. Furthermore, work is underway to improve animal genetic resources and more studies are conducted on medicinal and aromatic plants. 57 TURKEY’s 2nd VNR 2019 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS “Strong Ground towards Common Goals”