Sustainable agriculture and agritech business model proposal from Islamic economy perspective

The aim of this study is to propose an inclusive and innovative agritech business model that is compatible with Islamic principles and aimed at identifying and solving problems related to sustainable agriculture. A literature review was conducted to identify problems related to sustainable agriculture. The problems obtained within this scope were divided into 7 categories and reported. Afterwards, a business model was proposed that integrates agricultural partnership and lease agreements such as muzaraa, musakat, mugārese and ijarah, and financial instruments such as salam, istisna, murabaha, sukuk, crowdfunding and qard-i hasen with contemporary agricultural practices, based on the principles of Islamic economics and the instruments offered by Islamic finance. In order to develop this proposed model and increase its applicability, interviews were conducted with 22 people consisting of academicians, experts and agricultural business owners. After the interviews, the model's comprehensibility, applicability, strengths and weaknesses, and contribution to the Islamic ecosystem were evaluated, and the participants' suggestions for the development of the model were received. Secondly, structural changes were made to the model by evaluating the participants' suggestions and the developed model proposal was presented with its final structure. Thirdly, interviews were conducted with 11 people to evaluate the applicability of this developed model by farmers and landowners. At this stage, the interviews were conducted to evaluate the comprehensibility, applicability and effectiveness of the developed model in solving the encountered problems. As a result of the interviews, it was concluded that structural changes in the agricultural sector in Turkey are necessary, the developed model is highly applicable, will be effective in ensuring sustainable agriculture and will offer important opportunities in transferring the Islamic finance ecosystem to the agricultural sector. The aim is to address the agricultural issue from an Islamic perspective both theoretically and practically, to develop the agricultural sector in Turkey in accordance with technical and technological developments in the world and to make significant contributions to ensuring agricultural sustainability.