The selected target crops for Turkey are: durum wheat soft wheat winter barley rye oats grain maize sunflower field beans potato sugar beet LOCAL EXPERTS Dr. Ali Mermer - GIS and Remote Sensing Laboratory, General Directorate of Agricultural Research, Ankara COUNTRY PROFILE Turkey represents the country with extremely high importance of agriculture both in GDP and total employment share.

Agriculture production is of special importance to Turkey due to its increasing population and the great contribution agriculture makes to the national economy. Until 1978, the share of the agricultural sector claimed a top position in the GNP. This share, however, has fallen since, due to the increasing emphasis on industrialization. This development must not be interpreted as a decrease in the importance attached to agriculture. The fall of its share in the GNP reflects the rapid development in other sectors. In 1999, agriculture accounted for 14% of GDP, and 13.8% of exports. These percentages are lower than in the past, partly due to a more rapid growth in the industrial and service sectors, but the agricultural sector is still of substantial importance of the Turkish Economy, and agricultural output increased by an annual average of 1.1 percent between 1990 and 1998.