Agricultural sustainability in Turkey: integrating food, environmental and energy securities

Abstract

AbstractAgricultural production in Turkey is not sustainable due to degradation and loss of croplands, rapid population growth, and inequitable economic growth (poverty and overconsumption). Degrading land uses and management practices disturb the life‐supporting biogeochemical cycles within croplands and between croplands and natural ecosystems by increasing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs: CO2, CH4, N2O, CFCs, and tropospheric O3), pollution of water, soil and air, loss of soil organic matter and biodiversity, erosion, salinization and desertification. Sustainability‐oriented management practices in croplands include maintenance of soil organic matter by conservation tillage and residue management, windbreaks, selection of crops ecologically adapted to local climate regimes, efficient crop rotation, enhancement of agrobiodiversity (e.g. intercropping and agroforestry), and adoption of proper drainage techniques. Implementation of these preventive and mitigative measures necessitates internalization of ecological principles into agricultural policy and management processes. This study explores the opportunities and limitations of agricultural sustainability in Turkey in a holistic manner. A multiple linear regression (MLR) model was developed to relate CO2 emissions to energy intensity (energy use/gross domestic product), affluence (gross domestic product/population) and population growth. Our MLR model with a high R2 of 97 per cent revealed that stabilization of human population growth, and increasing energy efficiency in economic growth are essential to decreasing GHG emissions and enhancing environmental quality. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.