Sustainable Rangeland Improvement Possibilities in Turkey

Abstract

Forage produced from can notTurkey's current native pasture and meadow cattles areas as sheeps well as from forage crop production areas cannot meet the requirement of 73.7 million cattle and sheep. There are 14.6 million hectares of native meadow and pasture areas in Turkey. A significant amount of these areas need to be improved in order to increase the yield and quality of forage and ensure its sustainability. It has been calculated that a total budget of 45.6 billion TL is needed for the improvement of the native meadow and pasture areas and an average of 4 billion TL for annual maintenance. With the adoption of the Pasture Law No. 4342, the pasture areas that has been rehabilitated with Pasture Improvement and Management Projects are quite insufficient. In addition, due to non-compliance with the technical rules of pasture management in the improved areas, the process is not sustainable. Due to the insufficiency of available budget resources and the fact that pasture improvement by state facilities will take many years, there is a need for a new perspective and policy change in sustainable pasture improvement. In this article, some improvement and utilization models for the effective improvement and sustainable use of Turkey's pasture lands are discussed. With the proposal made, it has been suggested that rangelands larger than 1000 decares and pastures lager than 500 decares should be leased to the private sector and rehabilitated with the "improve and operate" system. It has been suggested that ¾ of the reclaimed area should be used by the private sector, and ¼ by the animal owners in the village where the pasture is allocated. In addition, it has been proposed that the rangelands with an area of less than 1000 decares and pastures with less than 500 decares must be leased to the Pasture Management Unions in the settlement where they are allocated, to ensure their rehabilitation and sustainable use. In cases where Pasture Management Unions are not willing to rent for improvement purposes, it has been suggested that these rangeland and pastures must be leased to the private sector regardless of the size of the area.