Current Situation and Importance of the Family Farming in Agriculture of Turkey

As is known by United Nations (UN) in 2014 was declared the year of family farming all over the world. For many years, small-scale farms and family farming holdings as a general trend, with negative affects took place on the agenda. In fact, all countries with national agricultural policy, agricultural structure tried to take measures to correct. Turkey was dominated by the same understanding. Agriculture contribution to Turkish GDP is around 9% and 23% of the employment in the country. For that reason agriculture is still important sector for socioeconomic aspects. In Turkey there is 23 million ha of agricultural land and about 3 million farm holdings. Average farm size is 5.9 ha. As it can be seen the average of farm holding size is very low. In this study, current situation of farming family and small scale farm holdings matters will be discussed for the advantages and disadvantages aspects in Turkish agriculture.