The importance of creating new inheritance policies and laws that reduce agricultural land fragmentation and its negative impacts in Turkey

Abstract

Turkey faces a problem that is encountered in emerging economies across the world. The small size of parcels and their scattered nature that are the product of existing inheritance systems are incompatible with the new technologies available. The resulting higher production, transport and marketing costs in Turkey mean that it is not competitive with its trading partners. The Turkish government has proposed a series of changes in how inheritance rights are to be managed in a program of land consolidation and reorganization. Such changes would have a major impact on the rural economy and could elicit strong cultural and political reactions.This study analyses the views of agricultural stakeholders to these proposed legal changes to prevent further fragmentation of agricultural land. The research was designed to predict impact rather than create policy. The interviewed stakeholders were separated into two groups; Those “in favor of the solution” and those “opposed to the solution” by a two-step cluster analysis, taking into account the social and economic characteristics of the stakeholders as well as the region where the study was conducted. It was determined that their economic concerns are the primary obstacle to creating effective policy. Education, social security, living place, tradition, and experience in the implementation of the policy were identified as other influential factors.