Developing rural planning policies in Turkey

Countless policies had been developed and applied from the proclamation of the Republic to date in solution of the problems encountered in rural areas. However, performed studies had been dispersed, partial and uncoordinated and had not been formed within rural planning discipline and staging. Rural and urban areas had not been handled together. Moreover, the formed policies had not been associated with economical and social policies and had not included an efficient public contribution. Consequently, applications and policies in rural areas for development purposes had not been efficient in providing social and economical development in these areas. One of the social and economical policies, which will be suggested for development and improvement in rural areas, is the "planning". This tool has an important role in protection of terrain in rural areas, income arrangements, natural source utilization and habitat protection. In this study, importance of rural planning in development of rural areas has been emphasized; formation process of rural planning has been defined and a rural planning model has been suggested for Turkey. With the above purpose in mind, past and present, nationwide and local rural development policies and applications in Turkey had been examined in the scope of literature, application projects and their reports. In addition to this, rural development approaches and policies of WB, UN, OECD and EU had been researched within the scope of new approaches appeared in rural development field. Examination and analysis of rural structure is mandatory to form a rural planning model. And within this scope, present status of rural structure had been analyzed with SWOT Analysis Technique by examining the studies performed by DIE (National Statistics Institute), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, DPT (State Planning Organization), digital data and related literature. As a result of this, strongweak sides, opportunities and threats of rural structure had been determined. By taking SWOT Analysis results as a basis, a rural planning model which targets the solutions of rural area problems, provides an coordination in rural productions and management, aims economical use of national sources, had been suggested in the final stage.