Rural development

The general purpose of this project was to promote an effective implementation of the EU financial assistance for rural development under the Rural Development Sector Programme and prepared the Turkish Cypriot community for the future implementation of the acquis communautaire.

Crop Husbandry Project aims; to reduce significantly the amount of water applied per crop and maximise water use efficiency for fruit, vegetable and field crops to overcome scarcity and salinity of water; to improve economic viability of crops under irrigation and dry farming in order to increase farmers’ welfare; to design production system according to market needs ; to perform all the activities in an interactive way with the involvement of key partners (public and private).

The project aims to improve the hygiene and sustainability of livestock production through a combination of activities to strengthen both the provision of animal husbandry farm advisory services and veterinary services, as well as to inform and guide stakeholders.

Under the GAP Rural Development Programme funded by the EC, a grant of 20 million Euro was allocated for the Rural Development component of the program. This grant was disbursed to a wide rage of sub-projects to be implemented by various stakeholders in the GAP region. The implementation of various activities within the framework of the Rural Development project helped to alleviate poverty and trigger a sustainable development process in the region by: diversification of non-farm activities; creating/maintaining employment; improving the income of beneficiary farmers and rural SMEs; improved usage of production factors; reorientation of farming and rural SME activities; improving the quality of farm and agro-industry products through improved processing and marketing; promoting handicraft activities; facilitating environmentally friendly farming and agro-industrial activities, improving infrastructure connected with the development of agriculture and institutional strengthening in the region. Project activities covered nine provinces, namely Adıyaman, Batman, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, Kilis, Mardin, Siirt, Şanlıurfa and Şırnak.

The Project was implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) of the Government of Turkey in cooperation with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The baseline survey consisted of 3 major components, which are general data collection, marketing survey and farming analysis.

AGRIN was involved in this project as a joint-venture partner with Lincoln Int. Ltd of New Zealand. Project objectives are to strengthen the research capabilities of agriculture, forestry, soil and water research institutes, through setting priority national research programs, including farmers research systems. Major consultancy inputs provided for institutional strengthening are; preparation of a research master plans, farming system research, livestock research, crops research, integrated pest management, forestry research, soil and water research, and MIS. AGRIN was also responsible for overall coordination of the consultancy activities (more than 200 staff month) of the project.

Basing on the two previous need assessment studies carried out for IFAD by AGRIN in Sivas, Kars, Agrı and Erzincan provinces, IFAD and government of Turkey have decided to implement a development project in Sivas and Erzincan. The purpose of the project formulation mission was to review the current status and trends, identify priority problems and constraints facing the project target groups, propose means of alleviating these constraints and estimate the cost and benefits of proposed project activities.

This study was carried for IFAD to provide an informed data base on socio-economic profile of rangeland and forest villages within the three proposed programme provinces (Ağrı, Kars, Sivas), as a basis for Programme design.

Under contract with IFAD, AGRIN carried out a “rapid impact study” to assess how far the project was successful in meeting its key project objectives and what major constraints existed in achieving the objectives. For this purpose, a detailed field survey was carried out, including interviews with project beneficiaries and other stakeholder

Ceyhan – Aslantaş is a US$400 million project financed by the World Bank and implemented between 1974 – 1986. The main objective of the project was the construction of Aslantaş Dam on Ceyhan River, for the purpose of flood protection, irrigation and power generation. WCD, within the framework of its mandate, has selected ten countries to assess the impacts of large dams on development. Turkey and Aslantaş Dam were also selected for the purpose of this study. AGRIN was awarded two separate contracts by WCD for i) the initial scoping study and ii) the final case study.