Analysis of Developments in the Dairy Cattle Sector of Turkey

Abstract

Husbandry has a special importance for people who live in rural areas in terms of agricultural income and profitability due to some contributions such as; providing cash flow throughout the year, product processing, balanced usage of labour force, and risk diversification. According to FAO data of 2017, Turkey‘s ratio in the world‘s total cattle existence was 0.99%, and it had a 2.78% ratio in total milk production. According to TSI data between 2004 and 2018; the number of total cattle reached 17.042.506 with a ratio increase of 4.62%, and the annual milk production amount reached 20.036.877 tons with a ratio increase of 7.23%. Within the period of time that is mentioned above, the contribution ratio of culture breed cattle in milk production reached 61.39% from 33.63%. However, in terms of milk cow productivity, Turkey is the 57th in the world. The cities of Konya, İzmir, Erzurum, Balıkesir, and Diyarbakır provide 21.74% of Turkey‘s total milk cow existence, and 22.77% of the milk production total. In terms of agricultural subsidies which are provided by Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, husbandry took a share of 25.79% from the 14.5 billion TL total agricultural subsidies in 2018. According to the research results, directly or indirectly, husbandry contributes to decreasing development level differences between regions, and it helps to improve enterprises‘ income levels in rural areas.