Agriculture-oriented services of local governments in Türkiye

Recently, international organisations, central governments and local governments around the world provide services and supports to producers under different headings in order to support local rural development. While in many countries such services and supports are mostly provided by central governments, in Turkey, especially in recent years, local governments along with the central government have also been playing a role as stakeholders and supportive actors in agricultural activities. This study provides information on the support services provided by metropolitan governments to producers in agricultural activities in Turkey. The data of the study were obtained from the 2022 and 2023 annual activity reports of seven metropolitan municipalities selected as a sample from seven regions of Turkey using the document analysis method. As a result of the study, it is seen that, unlike similar examples in the world, metropolitan municipal governments in Turkey provide support to producers in agricultural activities under various headings such as tools, equipment, production materials, seedlings, sapling distributions, cooperatives, grants and loans. While central governments in many countries contribute to local governments in cooperation with international organisations to support agricultural production, it is observed that local governments in Turkey do not benefit from these supports sufficiently.