As we all know, if the first button of a shirt is fastened wrong, all the other buttons go wrong. Turkey, which used to be self-sufficient in food and free of a food security problem, has been grappling with alarming agricultural decline for some time, increasingly turning to imports as its agricultural and animal production no longer meet domestic demand. On April 25, the embattled Turkish lira tumbled to its lowest level since October, boding further hardship for import-reliant farmers and the economy in general.

Farmers complain of being neglected, and an exodus is ongoing from the sector. Although exports have been able to cover the supply shortage, the devaluation of the Turkish lira has meant higher foreign exchange prices, which, combined with other problems, have raised costs in the agricultural sector. As a result of the cost increase, coupled with an unhealthy supply chain between producers and consumers, year-on-year food inflation has soared to nearly 30%.

The first button was fastened wrong years ago, when Ankara moved away from planning and began to embrace — with little questioning — destructive market rules, recommended emphatically by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

The illusion of an omnipotent market led to the misguided move of lifting state support and protections in the agricultural sector, although such safeguards remain in place in many countries around the world. Most notably, the standby deal that Ankara had with the IMF to overcome the 2001 economic crisis included painful terms to end agricultural supports and privatize public enterprises in the sector. Lacking strong organizational ties and cooperative networks, the sector failed to fight back the bitter pills, bracing for more trouble down the road. The 2001 measures spurred an exodus from crop cultivation and stockbreeding, with many erstwhile producers flocking to urban centers to become low-paid, menial laborers in the flourishing construction sector.