The Preliminary Farmers Group Meeting was held on 10 August 2022 at the İzmir Historical Havagazı Factory Cultural Center.

Senior executives of thirty seven leading organizations in agriculture and livestock sectors attended the Preliminary Farmers’ Meeting ranging from the unions of farmers to producer cooperatives, from animal breeders to veterinarians. Participation was not limited to the Aegean Region, as numerous institutions from various regions of Turkey were present at the meeting.

Afterwards, the participants took the floor. Every single one of them emphasized the significance of developing a road map for the Turkish economy, both for national development and the future of agriculture. In the Preliminary Farmers Group Meeting, two important issues were highlighted by many participants. They emphasized that the increasing dominance of international food monopolies over agricultural production condemned farmers to hunger and misery in their own country. They also stressed that the foreign dependence on agricultural input prices poses a grave threat to the future of agriculture on a national level.

Other important points raised by the sectoral representatives were as follows: Limited financial opportunities, lack of state incentives, inadequacy of cooperative organizations, increasing energy prices, the inadequacy of agricultural planning, the indifference of new generations to agriculture, the demise of agricultural education, long-term effects of the climate crisis, difficulties of integration into supply chains, the inadequacy of national food policies, destruction of agricultural lands and the decrease in animal husbandry.