President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met with farmers and sector representatives at the 'Ziraat Bank 5th Agriculture Ecosystem Meeting' held at the Istanbul Haliç Congress Center. In his speech, Erdoğan listed a series of good news for producers: I greet all our farmers and participants. I congratulate Ziraat Bank, which has been the biggest supporter of Turkish agriculture since 1863, for its work.
Dear farmers; I have come with news that will delight our agricultural sector. First, we are raising the credit limit for women and young farmers in agriculture from 3 million lira to 5 million lira. For investment loans, we will offer much stronger financing with a 2-year principal grace period, up to 10-year maturity, no equity contribution requirement, and Credit Guarantee Fund collateral support.
Our second piece of news: we are bringing idle large-scale dairy and beef cattle enterprises back into production. We will provide loans of up to 60 million lira for dairy farming investments and up to 40 million lira for beef cattle investments. We will stand by our producers with 2-year repayment grace periods and maturities of up to 8 years.
Thirdly, we are supporting renewable energy investments in agriculture more strongly and encouraging our farmers to generate their own electricity. In this context, we are providing loans of up to 15 million lira with 8-year maturity and high subsidy rates. Thus, we are both reducing production costs and supporting environmentally friendly production.
Finally, we are raising the credit limit for small livestock to 2 million lira and for large livestock to 3 million lira. I wish all this good news to be auspicious. We will continue to stand by our producers.
THE BOUNTY ALSO HAS RIGHTS OVER PEOPLE
Every opportunity offered by the soil and nature is a bounty. In our belief and value system, just as people have rights over each other, bounty also has rights over people. In our civilizational codes, being ungrateful to bounty is the greatest of disgraces. Giving thanks to God through bounty and observing the rights of bounty is one of the highest virtues. The issue of agriculture to protect the soil, which has only recently occurred to the modern world, is essentially the core and summary of our thousands of years of experience.
We do not use the term 'mother' for soil just for the sake of it. The folk songs depicting our cities amidst vineyards were not composed in vain. The saying 'You reap what you sow' was not etched into our national memory for nothing.
Aşık Veysel, one of the most distinguished representatives of Anatolian wisdom, says: 'The sheep gave lamb, gave milk, gave food / Gave bread, gave meat / When not beaten with a pickaxe, it gave little / My faithful beloved is the black soil,' pointing to both our culture and this heartfelt bond we have with the soil.
THE MERCHANT-FARMER STORY
I would like to share with you a parable full of lessons. A great merchant goes to an elderly farmer who is in difficulty during a drought season. He makes this offer: 'Come, give me this field, let me clear all your debts, and give you money on top.' The elderly farmer looks at his soil and gives the merchant this answer: 'Son, you may clear my debt, but this soil clears my hunger every spring. You give money once, the soil gives me bread every year. If I sell you the field, I won't have debt next year, but I won't have bread to eat either.' Upon these words, the merchant gives up his insistence. Yes, agriculture is important for the future of humanity.
NATURE DOES NOT FORGIVE THE UNGRATEFUL
Those who built great civilizations were only those who understood the language of the soil, the wind, the sea, the sun, the climate, and lived a life in harmony with that language. Among the heirs of Turkish civilization, which is also a civilization of bounty alongside many other features, our valuable farmers are at the forefront. From the bread on our table to our bulgur, from our cheese to our olives, the labor and sweat of our farmers are in almost every food. For this, I thank each and every one of you on behalf of myself and our nation, and I pray that God makes your work even more fruitful.
Nature does not show ingratitude, nor does it forgive those who are ungrateful to it. You also see that the global climate crisis and disasters we face are the result of modern man's ingratitude to the soil. Look at what Yusuf Has Hacib says in Kutadgu Bilig: 'If a person gets dirty, they wash with water; if water gets dirty, what does it wash with?' As humanity, we are paying a very heavy price for polluting water, soil, and air for the sake of earning more and consuming more.
WE EXPECT RECORDS IN MANY CROPS THIS YEAR
In recent years, we have experienced drought, fought forest fires, faced floods, overflows, agricultural frost events, and confronted various disasters. Especially last year was a very challenging year for us. We made a total payment of 47 billion lira to our producers affected by agricultural frost. Thank God, this year we are having a bountiful year in terms of rainfall. Our dams, lakes, and water resources are filling up, thank goodness. Our rivers and streams are flowing vigorously just as we longed for. As harvests are made, our farmers' faces have started to smile in terms of yield.
We expect records in barley, wheat, and hopefully many crops this year.
WE ARE IN THE TOP 10 IN THE WORLD IN SEEDS
206 types of agricultural products are grown in our country. We are self-sufficient in many of them. We are third in the world in vegetable production and fourth in fruit. We are in the top three in 21 plant product crops. We are among the top 10 in the world in seeds. We export seeds to 117 countries.
As you know, our June export figures were announced this morning. June 2025 exports rose by 21.9 percent compared to the same month last year, reaching 24 billion 940 million dollars. Our January-June exports increased by 3.6 percent, reaching a total of 136 billion 59 million dollars. Our agricultural and food product exports increased by 23.3 percent to 2.8 billion dollars. The total for the first 6 months also rose by 3.3 percent to 16.3 billion dollars. We closed 2024 with a foreign trade surplus of 6.5 billion dollars in agriculture and food. In the first 6 months of this year, we gave a surplus of 693 million dollars. Similarly, the June inflation rate came in at 0.99 percent. I wish the announced data to be auspicious for our economy. We will, God willing, march resolutely towards our goals.
INTEGRATING WITH THE FARMER IS NOT ABOUT WEARING A CAP
In the last 23 years, we have provided approximately 3 trillion lira in support to agricultural production in real terms. The total support we gave to the sector last year reached 706 billion lira. The figure we have allocated directly and indirectly for agriculture in 2025 is exactly 939 billion lira. That is, we will support our producers with a colossal sum approaching 1 trillion lira. Turkey ranks about twice the OECD average in terms of support provided to its farmers. We do not put on a show like some, we do not exploit, we just work. Integrating with the farmer is not about wearing a cap. Supporting agriculture is not like what the opposition does, promising every farmer a free tractor in the squares and then saying 'We did it for advertising.'
All of these are actions that reek of hypocrisy and show. These are also cheap political cunning belonging to the old Turkey. They have no idea about the level agriculture has reached in the world and in Turkey. Both themselves and their mentality are as antiquated as the tractor they ride. This antiquated mentality will be of no benefit to the country, the nation, or our farmers. What did our ancestors say? You cannot make baklava from millet flour, nor a rolling pin from a fig tree. Whether old or new, the main opposition brings no benefit to this country's agriculture. In fact, when we look at the triviality of the issues they deal with and bicker over, we can all see that they are of no benefit even to themselves, let alone the nation.
A TERROR-FREE TÜRKİYE WILL INCREASE PRODUCTION
We work day and night for our country, for our 86 million citizens, especially for our dear youth who are the guarantee of our future. We are striving to elevate Türkiye in every field, not just in agriculture, livestock, and production, and to build the Century of Türkiye. As the People's Alliance, with the terror-free Türkiye process we are conducting in solidarity, we want to solve the terror problem that has cost our country over 2 trillion dollars and open wide the doors of a great and powerful Türkiye. The environment of trust provided by the process is having a positive impact on almost every sector, from sports to employment, from tourism to trade. But we will see the real success, God willing, when the process fully reaches its destination. By God's permission, when this auspicious process concludes, our economy will become even stronger, our production will increase further, and our brotherhood will be reinforced. As the People's Alliance, we will, God willing, successfully bring this process, for which we have put in great effort, to its goal with your prayers and support.
