Turkey is facing a significant loss of farmland, especially around major cities. As property developers make tempting offers, many farmers are leaving agriculture. This trend is contributing to rising food prices and worsening food inflation.
In April, Turkey’s consumer price index (CPI) increased by 32% compared to last year. Food prices surged even more, with non-alcoholic drinks and food rising by 35%. According to Burçin Kısacıkoğlu, an economics professor at Bilkent University in Ankara, seasonal changes play a role, but the ongoing trend of farmers selling land to developers is a more serious, long-term issue.
Farmers prefer the quick returns from land sales over the rising costs of farming, which include expensive fuel and labor shortages. At the same time, cities like Istanbul and Ankara have seen rapid population growth. Since 2004, Istanbul’s population has soared to 16 million, while Ankara has grown to 6 million.
From 2004 to 2025, farmland around these cities has shrunk drastically. For instance, Ankara lost nearly 143,000 hectares of farmland, which is about 11%. This decline gives rise to greater food insecurity, forcing cities to rely more on distant farms for produce. Transporting food from farther away adds extra costs, further driving up prices. Kısacıkoğlu notes that items like tomatoes, which used to come from close by, now often travel from regions like Anatolia or even abroad.
Annual crop production, including staples like wheat, maize, and potatoes, has dropped by 663,000 tonnes in just over two decades. There’s minimal governmental action to stop farmers from selling their land or to encourage crop production. This negligence has worsened Turkey’s dependence on imports. For instance, from 2010 to 2023, wheat and maize imports quadrupled, while barley imports increased by 22 times.
High real estate prices further entice farmers to sell their land. In major cities, residential property prices have skyrocketed, increasing tenfold this decade in local currency, even as the lira has lost significant value against the dollar. Nonetheless, in dollar terms, property prices are still up nearly a third in the 2020s, making sales appealing as an inflation hedge.
Rising costs in agriculture further drive this trend. The agricultural-input price index rose 34% in March from the previous year, with increases ranging between 21% and 138% monthly in recent years.
The ongoing reduction of cultivated land around Turkey’s urban areas can ultimately threaten the nation’s food supply and raise concerns over food prices. As cities expand and farmland disappears, the challenge remains: how to balance growth with sustainable agriculture.
For more detailed statistics on Turkey’s agricultural trends, you can check the Turkish Statistical Institute here.
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