ORGANIC AGRICULTURE IN PROVINCE OF USAK IN TURKEY

Abstract

Organic agriculture consists of environmental and human friendly productionsystems in order to reestablish the natural balance which is lost as a result ofinaccurate and excessive farming practices. In others words, instead of usingsynthetic chemical pesticides and fertilizers, organic agriculture promotes organicand green fertilization, crop rotation, soil conservation, increasing plant resistanceas well as benefitting from parasites and predators. In addition, organic farmingrefers to improving not the amount of production but the quality of it. Due to thespread of diseases caused by pesticide and hormone residue on the products, peopleshow great interest in organic agriculture so as to lead a healthier life. Total organicagricultural production in the world is 4.516.810 tons, while in Turkey it is 353.173tons. As for Turkey’s organic agriculture, Uşak province has little share in itdespite its favourable climate and location. In this study, as a methodology, weanalyzed the existing data on organic agriculture in Uşak province and in Turkey aswell as in the total production in all over the world. And then, we compared thosestatistics with each other, finding that Uşak province, however great potential ithas, hasn’t been able to reach the desired level in terms of organic agriculture. Wefocus on determining the potential of Uşak province for organic agriculture.Furthermore, we aim to define the problems of organic agriculture and to findsolutions to them in order to make organic agriculture more widespread and morepracticable.