Progresses in the Turkish seed industry

The Turkish seed industry is in a rapid change and privatization is going on as it has been planned. Recently, 20,400-hectares of state farms have been announced for joint ventures on seed production. At the moment, almost 92% of wheat and 83% of barley seed production is done within the public sector. The state farms run by TIGEM (General Directorate of Agricultural Enterprise) are the main seed suppliers of the public sector. Ecological advantages of Turkey for seed production have been evaluated positively and hybrid seed production for export, especially for corn and sunflower, is gradually increasing. On the other hand, vegetable seed imports are also rising due to increased demands for export of greenhouse vegetable products. In this case, the government's policy is to promote seed companies to produce their seeds in Turkey itself. Field trials of genetically modified corn, cotton and potato varieties have begun in Turkey two years ago, and the biosafety regulations are under development. Seed policy specialists could select the Turkish seed market as a laboratory, especially from the standpoint of privatization and transformation of local seed companies. Although Turkey is a member of ISTA and OECD, its membership to UPOV is yet underway. The harmonization of "Variety Development, Registration and Release" and "Seed Quality Control and Certification" regulations with the European Union has also been started. The Seed Technology Center at Ege University, Izmir has been established as a specialized institution. © 2002 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.