Debt of farmers in Turkey reached record highs in 2021, warns opposition MP

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The amount of loans that farmers took out from the state-run Ziraat Bank and the Agricultural Credit Cooperatives in 2021 alone made up one-fifth of the amount of loans between 2003 and 2021, an opposition MP said.

Farmers took out 97.3 billion lira of loans in the last year whereas the total amount of loans in 18 years was 479.7 billion lira, main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy İlhami Özcan Aygun said, citing the 20201 activity report of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (1 US dollar = 14.60 Turkish lira).

"The breaking point of the farmer is 2021," the MP said in a press release, noting that farmers can only pay their debts to Ziraat and cooperatives by taking out loans from private banks.

"While the return rate of agricultural loans extended by Ziraat Bank is 99.02 percent in 2021, the return rate of agricultural loans extended by Agricultural Credit Cooperatives is 93.30 percent. But these debts are also paid off with loans from private banks."

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Also, he said, the number of farmers who obtained a document of insolvency reached 21,333, citing a report by the Agricultural Credit Cooperatives.

"Receivables amounting to 267,534,983 lira related to this were collected from the Undersecretariat of Treasury. The certificate of insolvency is the document given to the creditors in case the amount obtained from the goods sold is not sufficient to pay debts, even though all the goods of the debtor have been sold. Our farmers have fallen into such despair." (EMK/VK)