Strategic Land-Use Planning in Türkiye's Agriculture

Türkiye's shift to strategic land-use planning emphasizes resource conservation and climate resilience. This approach aims to protect fertile plains while enhancing productivity on sloping lands, ensuring efficient resource use, and promoting sustainability in agricultural decisions.

POLICY BRIEFS

Mithat Direk

8/14/2026

Tractors sit near a palm tree and a grassy hill.

Türkiye stands at a critical junction in its agricultural history. With a growing population, declining water resources, and the accelerating effects of climate change, the country must rethink how it uses its agricultural land. For decades, farmers have largely based production decisions on market expectations, often resulting in periodic oversupply, sharp price fluctuations, inefficient resource use, and uncertainty over farm incomes. Türkiye’s new planned production model represents an important attempt to address these structural challenges by aligning crop choices more closely with national food-security priorities and the characteristics of different agricultural landscapes.

Introduced by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in 2024, the planned production model changes the incentives surrounding agricultural investment. One notable provision concerns orchard establishment: government support for establishing orchards is no longer available on land with slopes below 6 percent. At first glance, directing fruit production toward sloping land may appear unusual. Flat farmland is generally easier to cultivate, irrigate, mechanize, and transport crops from, making it highly attractive for commercial agriculture. However, precisely because these areas are so valuable, policymakers increasingly want them reserved for strategic field crops such as wheat, barley, sunflower, and other commodities essential to national food security.

Sloping land, meanwhile, can provide an alternative space for perennial agriculture. Fruit trees have extensive root systems that can stabilize soil, slow surface runoff, improve infiltration, and reduce erosion when orchards are properly designed and managed. Permanent vegetation cover can also contribute organic matter and improve soil structure over time. On erosion-prone hillsides, therefore, carefully planned orchards may provide both economic production and environmental benefits.

The policy nevertheless requires careful implementation. Not every sloping area is suitable for orchards. Soil depth, rainfall, water availability, aspect, frost risk, accessibility, and erosion hazards must be considered before farmers are encouraged to plant perennial crops. Poorly designed orchards on steep or fragile slopes could themselves accelerate erosion if vegetation cover between trees is inadequate.

Türkiye’s challenge, therefore, is not simply to move orchards uphill. It is to create a more intelligent agricultural geography in which each type of land is matched with the crops and production systems it can sustain most efficiently. If supported by sound research, extension services, water planning, and appropriate financial incentives, the planned production model could help Türkiye protect its most productive flatlands, conserve vulnerable soils, improve resource efficiency, and build a more climate-resilient agricultural system.

The Hillside Orchard Revolution

The vision behind Türkiye’s planned production model is not a return to traditional hillside farming, but the creation of a modern horticultural system that combines productivity with environmental stewardship. Advances in orchard management have made sloping land increasingly viable for commercial production. Drip irrigation, for example, can deliver water directly to individual trees, reducing evaporation, runoff, and unnecessary irrigation on uneven terrain. Terracing can transform slopes into stable planting platforms, slowing water movement and limiting soil erosion, while contour planting and ground-cover vegetation can further protect vulnerable soils. High-density orchard systems can also increase production per hectare, allowing farmers to generate greater returns without expanding cultivation into valuable natural areas.

International experience demonstrates that these approaches can work. Spain, Italy, and Israel have developed productive orchard systems across challenging landscapes by combining efficient irrigation, soil conservation, improved varieties, mechanization, and precision agriculture. Türkiye can adapt these lessons to its own agroecological conditions rather than simply copying foreign models. Digital agriculture can further strengthen the transition. Soil-moisture sensors, satellite imagery, weather data, automated irrigation systems, and mobile advisory platforms can help farmers manage orchards more precisely and respond quickly to climatic and production risks.

The implications are particularly important for Konya and Central Anatolia. The Konya Plain is one of Türkiye’s most important agricultural regions, producing large quantities of wheat and other field crops. Yet the same region is experiencing increasing pressure on groundwater resources. Excessive groundwater extraction, combined with a semi-arid climate and irrigation-intensive agriculture, has created serious concerns about the long-term sustainability of conventional production. Protecting the most productive flatlands for strategic field crops while encouraging perennial crops on suitable slopes could therefore become an important component of regional land-use planning.

Sloping areas could provide opportunities for almonds, walnuts, olives, vineyards, and other perennial crops, depending on soil, temperature, rainfall, elevation, and market conditions. These crops can potentially provide farmers with higher-value products while diversifying rural incomes. However, horticulture should not automatically be considered synonymous with lower water use. Crop choice, irrigation method, orchard density, and local climate will determine actual water demand. The policy must therefore prioritize water productivity rather than simply shifting production from one landscape to another.

Implementation will be the real test. Establishing a modern orchard requires substantial upfront investment in saplings, irrigation infrastructure, land preparation, terraces, fencing, machinery, and technical services. Smallholders may struggle to finance these costs, particularly when orchards take several years to reach full production. Access to affordable credit, insurance, grants, and patient investment finance will therefore be essential.

Knowledge is equally important. Farmers accustomed to annual field crops may need training in pruning, grafting, integrated pest management, soil conservation, irrigation scheduling, harvesting, grading, and marketing. Extension services must become more specialized and locally responsive.

Regional diversity adds another layer of complexity. A production model suitable for the dry landscapes of Central Anatolia cannot simply be imposed on the Mediterranean or Black Sea regions, where rainfall, soils, crop systems, and market opportunities differ substantially. Türkiye’s new approach will succeed only if national objectives are combined with regional planning and site-specific recommendations. The ultimate goal should be simple: put the right crop on the right land, using the right technology, while protecting the resources on which future agriculture depends.

The Bigger Agricultural Picture

Türkiye’s new approach to orchard establishment represents more than a change in eligibility for agricultural support; it reflects a broader reconsideration of how scarce land, water, and natural resources should be allocated. For decades, agricultural decisions have often been influenced by short-term market signals, encouraging farmers to respond collectively to price opportunities. When too many producers make similar decisions, however, markets can become oversupplied, prices can collapse, and valuable resources can be used inefficiently. The planned production model seeks to move beyond this reactive pattern by linking agricultural support more closely with land suitability, national food-security priorities, and environmental sustainability.

Directing orchard development toward suitable sloping land can serve several objectives simultaneously. Türkiye’s most productive plains are particularly valuable for mechanized production of strategic field crops such as wheat, barley, sunflower, and other staples. Protecting these areas from unnecessary conversion to perennial horticulture can help preserve national production capacity. At the same time, carefully managed orchards can bring economically underutilized slopes into productive use without requiring the expansion of agriculture into forests, grasslands, or other natural ecosystems.

The environmental dimension is equally important. Well-designed orchards can reduce soil erosion, improve ground cover, increase organic matter, and slow surface runoff. However, simply planting trees on a slope does not automatically guarantee sustainability. Poorly designed orchards can themselves accelerate erosion, particularly where soil is disturbed extensively during establishment. Success therefore depends on appropriate terracing, contour planting, ground cover, drainage management, and irrigation practices.

For farmers, the transition will require substantial support. Establishing an orchard involves significant upfront expenditure on saplings, irrigation systems, fencing, land preparation, machinery, and labor, while meaningful returns may take several years. Smallholders with limited access to credit could therefore be disadvantaged unless targeted financial mechanisms are available. Low-interest loans, grants, insurance schemes, and transitional support could reduce the financial risks associated with the shift.

Knowledge transfer will be equally critical. Farmers moving from annual field crops to orchards need guidance on cultivar selection, rootstocks, pruning, fertilization, pest management, irrigation scheduling, harvesting, and post-harvest handling. Extension services should therefore become an integral part of the policy rather than an afterthought.

Water management must remain at the center of implementation, particularly in Central Anatolia. Drip irrigation can improve farm-level efficiency, but efficiency gains alone do not guarantee reduced water consumption at the basin level. Orchard expansion should therefore be coordinated with groundwater monitoring, irrigation planning, and broader water-allocation policies.

Ultimately, the 6% slope criterion should be viewed as one component of a much larger agricultural transformation. If supported by sound land-use planning, farmer finance, technical assistance, water governance, and regional adaptation, Türkiye can protect its most valuable plains while creating productive new opportunities on suitable hillsides. The objective is not simply to plant more orchards, but to build an agricultural system that produces more value while conserving the land and water resources on which future generations will depend.

Conclusion

Türkiye’s planned production model represents a significant shift from market-driven agricultural decisions toward strategic land-use planning, resource conservation, and climate resilience. Directing supported orchard establishment toward suitable sloping lands can help protect fertile plains for strategic field crops while creating productive opportunities in areas that have often remained underutilized. Properly designed orchards can also reduce erosion, improve soil health, diversify farm incomes, and strengthen rural economies. However, the success of this approach will depend on more than the 6% slope criterion. Site-specific land assessment, efficient irrigation, farmer finance, specialized extension services, modern orchard technologies, and careful regional planning will be essential. Türkiye must also ensure that orchard expansion does not unintentionally increase pressure on already scarce water resources. Ultimately, the policy offers an opportunity to build a more rational agricultural landscape, one where crops are matched with suitable land, resources are used efficiently, and productivity is pursued alongside environmental sustainability.

Please note that the views expressed in this article are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of any organization.

The writer is affiliated with the Department of Agricultural Economics, Selcuk University, Konya-Türkiye and can be reached at mdirek@selcuk.edu.tr

Strategic Land-Use Planning in Türkiye's Agriculture

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