A research on crop yields in Ipsala Plain in relation with land consalidation

Nowadays, the rapid growth of the population of the world is in parallel with the increase in people's nutritional needs. However, agricultural lands which provides the nutritional needs are remained the same. The farm lands are even decreasing due to some reasons. The solution to this problem is to find a new methods to increase crop yields in available agricultural lands. As it is known, the agricultural lands in Turkey have been continuously divided over the years as a results of sales, inheritance and other factors. Consequently, parcels have become much smaller and increased in number. This leads to causes to misshapen parcels, have an increase in parcel borderlines and subsequently the inability to use pesticides, seeds and fertilizers in an effective manner. The great majority of our agricultural holdings in our country have an small agricultural areas. More over, since this holdings are located far from each other and consists of many separated pieces of lands, it causes not to establish large holdings which have a large area to cultivate the crops. The above mentioned factors result in low return in crop yields in farm lands and inability to conduct economical agricultural activities. The fact that the agricultural lands consist of many small pieces result in the loss of areas that can be cultivated. As a result, crop gains in such lands is particularly low. Therefore, land consolidation projects are of great importance to overcome low agricultural productivity resulting from partitioned lands. The advantages of land consolidation projects are given as in the following: • As a result of the land consolidation projects, number of parcels in project areas decreases, the size of parcels increases and efforts are made to turn these parcels into better shaped lots. • The increase in parcel size after land consolidation makes the agricultural machineries to operate easily in parcels. • High return in crop yields for the agricultural owners is obtained after land consolidation. • An increase in living standards in rural areas is resulted from land consolidation projects . • Each parcel in the project area can be connected to irrigation channels and roads. • Materials such as fertilizer and agricultural chemicals are saved. • The small uncultivated areas before land consolidation projects are now under cultivation which results in an increase of crop yields. • Decreasing the line border of the parcels results in an increase in the net area for land usage. This study has been conducted to determine the impact of land consalidation carried out in 10 residental areas in Ipsala plain, which is one of the most important granaries in Turkey, on crop yields. The primary materials of the study are the data obtained from Edirne Provincial Directorate of Food, Agriculture and Livestock regarding the cadastral state in the above referred residential areas before and after land consalidation projects. The secondary materials of the study are the statistical tables and information obtained from Turkish Statistical Institute on the implementation area. The research determines the impact of land consolidation in crop gain increase based on the combination of data obtained from both institutions. This thesis consists of five parts: The first part contains the definition of the research topic, study purpose, method and scope of the study. The second part contains a discussion on the factors leading to partitioning of agricultural lands in Turkey as well as recommendations on what preventive steps could be taken to minimize the negative impacts. This part also contains a summary of the most significant technical, economic and social benefits ensured by means of land consolidation implementations. In addition, the legislation on land consolidation, the implementing institutions and the works carried out until today have also been discussed based on the findings of a comprehensive literature survey. In the third part, the analysis of agricultural structure in Turkey with the help of most up to date data is examined. In the forth part, an analysis of the impact of land consolidation of crop yield in the selected areas within İpsala plain is studied. The land consolidation data lists provided from Edirne Provincial Directorate of Food, Agriculture and Livestock are classified into number and size of the parcels. The obtained classified results are compared with pre and post land consolidation. By applying the obtained digital NetCAD data, border length of parcels have been determined for each residential unit before and after land consolidation. Uncultivated area is also determined with the measurement of the strip with a width of 0,30 meter and 0,50 meter next to the parcel edge. The fifth part includes the evaluation of the data obtained as well as recommendations for future. In this thesis, the given data is evaluated by Microsoft Excel and NetCAD softwares. For the evaluation and interpretation of the results of the study, percentage calculations were also used. The fact that the agricultural lands are mostly misshapen and are mostly partitioned into small pieces leads to unnecessarily long borderlines. Generally speaking, the strip with a width of 0,30 to 0,50 meters next to the parcels edge are not possible to utilize. Considering that these strips around the agricultural lands cannot be cultivated, an area with a width of 0,60 – 1,00 meter is lost. This leads to a certain amount of land which is left uncultivated resulting in ineffective use of inputs such as pesticides, fertilizers and seeds. In İpsala plain, as a result of land consolidation works, a total area of 0,8 to 18 hectares per unit has been regained after the uncultivated areas are put to use. A total of 52,23 hectares of agricultural area has been regained. When the ratio of regained lands per unit is analysed, the highest land gains in İpsala Centre 29,79%, Aliçopehlivan 29,96%, Paşaköy 25,26% and Ahırköy 25,21%. The lowest agricultural land regain occurred in Yeni Karpuzlu with 11,80% of the total area put to agricultural use. For calculation of crop yields in terms of products, the ratios and averages were provided from TÜİK's data on vegetable production. When the results are analysed, it can be seen that a total of 24,59 tons of sunflower, 65,52 tons of wheat and 177,07 tons of paddy has been gained using the consolidation project and decreasing the parcel border lines. This values clearly demonstrates the positive impact of land consolidation in crop yields. By considering the results provided from crop yields in land consolidation, it is thought that the view of some agricultural owners who are reluctant to land consolidation, can also be changed towards land consolidation. Furthermore, such gains in agriculture products also contribute to a great extent to the welfare of people living in rural areas as well as to national economy. The impact of land consolidation works in the region carried out in the period between 2005 – 2009 and 2009 – 2013 on the production of sunflower, wheat and paddy has been analysed on the basis of TÜIK's data on vegetable production. When we analyse the results of the research it can be seen that despite an increase in the area where wheat and sunflower are cultivated, the crop yield remained the same. With regard to paddy, there has been an increase in both the cultivated area as well as an increase in the productiveness. Changes in the size of parcels before and after the land consolidation works have also been compared. When we analyse the data, it can be seen that the partitioning of agricultural lands in Turkey is also a phenomenon seen in İpsala plain which has been analysed in this study. In the 10 residential areas that have been included in the analysis, the number of parcels decreased by 50%, whereas the average parcel sizes doubled. The average parcel size after the land consolidation projects have been 2,5 hectares for each location unit. This study also shows the success of land consolidation works in İpsala plain carried out between from 2005 and 2013, as a result of which the lands that have been partitioned and small agricultural due to various reasons have been consolidates in a way that ensures high crop yield in agriculture. Consequently, it is clear that much more attention should be given to the agricultural land consolidation projects that aim maximum crop yield in agricultural lands.