Resource use efficiency of organic wheat production in Turkey

Abstract

Intensive cropping techniques, over-mechanized agricultural production, inefficient agricultural chemical use have negatively affected world valuable cropland, which is very important to the mankind. About 38% of Earth's land cover is occupied by agriculture. If unsustainable agricultural methods are pursued, they contribute to inefficient resource use. Organic farming is a good alternative in order to provide sustainability and efficient resource use. Yet, its production is not robust enough to play a significant role in feeding the world. Globally, 1.9 billion adults are overweight and, of those, 600 million are obese, while 793 million people are undernourished. Organic agriculture is discussed if it is the most appropriate option for sustainable agriculture. The current paper seeks to find organic wheat production and its positive impacts to the Turkish economy. In Turkey, there is no organic wheat production yet. We revealed the economic benefits when organic wheat production is partially preferred by examining the resource use efficiency. In other words, the nature of organic farming and conventional farming, what those methods demand from nature and restore to the environment, and their unit economic values constitute the subject of this study.