Agriculture and Livestock

Kahramanmaras ranks 28th in Turkey's agricultural production. There is a high agricultural diversity in Kahramanmaras where the elevation of land ranges between 350 to 3,000 metres. Grains and other crops have a significant part in terms of growing area and amount of product in the agricultural production of the province.

There are 375,309 hectares of agricultural land in the province. Fields constitute 74% of farm land and fruits and vegetables lands and fallow lands constitute the rest. Although Kahramanmaras has a scattered land distribution, arable fields have a 26% share, which is a substantial amount.

Prominent products in the province are wheat, red pepper, sunflower seed, walnut and apricot.

Source: TSI, Regional Indicators Database, 2011

Source: Kahramanmaras Provincial Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Livestock, Strategic Plan of 2012-2016 

Organic Farming
Organic farming practices (mainly for vegetable and olive production) have also been realized recently in Kahramanmaras. As a result of increasing organic farming practices; wheat, laurel, apple, apricot, cherry, lentil, chickpeas, grapes, walnuts, lathyrus and feed plants can be grown organically. 22 farmers are engaged in organic farming activities in the province and 1620 tons of production was realized on 321 hectares of land since 2011.

Greenhouse Farming Practices
Kahramanmaras, situated in our region, where 1% of greenhouse farming in Turkey is performed; there are 10 glass greenhouses, 44 plastic greenhouses, 1.754 high tunnels and 8.952 low tunnels. It is thought that there is an investment potential in this area for people and companies, who plan an investment in the field of agriculture.

Animal Production
Kahramanmaras, which has 1,7% of Turkey's small cattle, has also begun to be significant in livestock breeding, especially recently with the investments made in Elbistan county, which has one of Turkey's important livestock markets

Source: TSI, Regional Indicators Database, 2011 

Agriculture and Rural Development Strategic Plan of Kahramanmaras Province
4 strategic regions have been determined with the help of our Agency in accordance with the Agriculture and Rural Development Strategic Plan of the Province of Kahramanmaras, prepared by Kahramanmaras Provincial Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Livestock, involving the years 2012 and 2016 with the purpose of evaluation the agricultural potential of our province more effectively and the targets are described below.

Strategic Region 1: Effective Use of Agricultural Production Potential

1. Improving plant production, increasing plant diversity
2. Increasing animal production
3. Protecting the rural population and supporting the socio-cultural development of this population
4. Increasing the effectiveness of Provincial Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Livestock
5. Improving the quality of agricultural labor force and providing employment in agricultural land
6. Increasing the effectiveness of agricultural production subsidies

Strategic Region 2: Production Efficiency

1. Increasing efficiency in plant production
2. Increasing efficiency in stockbreeding
3. Effective and efficient use of water resources
4. Effective and efficient use of agricultural lands
5. Increasing the effectiveness of R&D activities in agricultural production

Strategic Region 3: Investments for Value-Added Production

1. Developing of agricultural trade
2. Increasing the competitive capacity of special local products in national and international markets
3. Use of modern techniques in agricultural production and industrialization

Strategic Region 4: Sustainability of Food Safety

1. Ensuring food safety and production of safe food