Fig economy in Turkey

124 SUMMARY In this study, called "Fig Economy in Turkey", the situation of fig, which is one of the important agricultural products of the country in the economy has been revealed. In this sense, how and in which direction the changes occured in agriculture sector and developments have affected fig production has been poinded out, furthermore, forecesting results relating fig has been analyzed. The main hypothesis is that; "Despite of the relative decrease in the significance of the agricultural sector in the Turkish economy, it still has an indispensible share, and fig has an important percentage in that sector". In this study, literature concerning this subject is evaluated; Data on fig production prices, have been obtained from DIE (SIS) and other institutions. Deduction approach has been applied. Firstly, Turkish economy has been discussed in general. Next, the place and significance of the agriculture in Turkish economy have been displayed by analysing agricultural sector. Following this, the place for fig in economy has been analyzed in detail. The investigations have been managed by moving from macro apporach to micro approach. Moreover, the predictions towards future has been stated by applying the induction method in the analysis section. Turkish and French literature, text books and papers have been used in the preparation of work. DIE, DPT, TCMB, ITB's published statistical data, reports and their web sites, Erbeyli Fig Research Institute's data and agriculture engineers'125 under the title of "The share and importance of agriculture in economy". In order to explain the importance of fig in economy, fresh fig and dried fig production in Turkey and in the world, the fresh and dried fig production have been forecasted for the next ten years in the sixth chapter. Furthermore, fresh fig and dried fig consumption, marketing channels, export, pricing and employment policies have been stated in the same chapter. The seventh chapter discusses agriculture and fig policies implemented in Turkey. The following chapter argues the possible problems and solutions concerning fig. Finally, the last chapter is the general evaluation and conclusion of the work. We can sum up the oppurtunities and potentials in fig sector of Turkey as follows: Approximately 250,000 people are engaged in production. Fig is consumed in fresh and dried form. Turkey produced about 25 % fresh fig and 54 % dried fig of the world according to 1997 year data. By the end of year 2000, Turkey will have produced 290,000 tone fresh, 49,001 tone dried fig. It is predicted that there will be 305,711 tone fresh fig and 54,908 tone dried fig production in 2011 by applying the analysis of linear regression. Turkey has 33 percentage share in fig world market and 59 percentage in dried fig production in 1998. In order to increase advantages and contribition of fig market to economy, Turkey ought to educate producers about marketing chanells, gaining more experience in every stage from consumption to export. Moreover, there should be some new measures concerning fig production, marketing, consumption and export. These new measures should also be applied to other agricultural foods. Therefore, the share of agriculture in national income will increase and this improvement will result in economic development.