The Role of Organic Agriculture Potential in the Rural Development of Turkey: The Case of Gökçeada
Assist. Prof ŞerminAtak, Assoc.Prof Sibel Tan, Assist Prof. ÜmranŞengül

Abstract
Organic agriculture in Turkey has been put into the agenda in accordance with the external demands since 1980. These demands initially started with traditional products such as raisin and fig and then the number of requested products has increased rapidly. Including the transition process, approximately 24.354 farmers produced about 665.550 tons organic products from 251.899 hectares field in Turkey. Imbros, turning into an organic island, is a region over which significant projects are implemented. With a total of 101 varieties of organic products, Gökçeadah as a potential of up to 50% of the number of varieties in Turkey. On the other hand, 390 producers carry out organic agricultural activities in the island. Imbros has 1.35% of the organic agriculture land and 1.47% of the production of Turkey. The present study was conducted to assess the positive effects of organic agriculture on rural poverty alleviation, environment and tourism potential of the region through field studies conducted on the island. The present findings revealed that policy and strategy recommendations for the development of organic agriculture of Gökçeada should continue. In this study, the institutional structure of organic agriculture in Turkey and Gökçeada, government policies towards organic agriculture, the importance of the organic agriculture in terms of the projects conducted and rural development will be examined. Results of the study revealed that Imbros going to have rural development strategies about future.

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