The European Commission adopted on 14 March, the rural development programme (IPARD) under the instrument for pre-accession assistance for Turkey, with a budget of €430 million.

The programme provides the basis for EU support in the field of agriculture and rural development for the period 2021-2027. This EU support, together with national public and private contributions, are expected to generate in total over €1 billion investment in rural areas of Turkey. 

The IPARD programme is a clear signal of the EU’s support to investing in agriculture and rural development, as an element of strengthening their resilience.

Which are the IPARD objectives?

With the implementation of IPARD programme, Turkey pursues the objectives related to increased competitiveness of the agri-food sector, sustainable management of natural resources, climate action and improved attractiveness of the rural areas. The programme also contributes to the objectives of the European Green Deal.  This will be done for example through:

• modernisation of assets of farms and agri-food sector enterprises and improvement of their competitiveness via better environmental performance,
• renewable energy production and increased energy efficiency,
• improvement of manure and waste management,
• transfer of innovative and environmentally and climate friendly technologies,
• promotion of environment- and climate-sound farming production methods.

Furthermore, the IPARD programme supports investments to align with EU standards, including upgrading buildings, machinery, and equipment. It also helps establishing short supply chains, increasing rural areas growth potential and their attractiveness, diversifying income-generating economic activities and fostering rural employment, in particular among women and youth.

Which are the measures Turkey will adopt?

To achieve these objectives, Turkey selected the following 8 measures out of the 13 measures established at the EU level.

•  "Investments in physical assets of agricultural holdings" help farms invest in buildings or technologies to increase the efficiency, competitiveness, and more sustainable agricultural production.
• "Investments in physical assets concerning processing and marketing of agricultural and fishery products" seek to ensure projects in food processing companies meet EU safety and environmental standards.
• "Agri-environment-climate and organic farming" aims to promote farming management practices and production methods, which improve the state of the environment, natural resources and mitigate and/or adopt to climate change.
• "Implementation of local development strategies – LEADER approach" supports local action groups, representing a wide range of multi-sectoral private and public partners, in implementing their bottom-up local development strategies, which contribute to economic, social, cultural and environmental improvements of local areas.
•  “Investments in rural public infrastructure” target economic, social and territorial development of rural areas through the development of physical infrastructure which improves rural population’s living standards and overall attractiveness of rural areas.
• "Farm diversification and business development" is a tool for rural businesses and farming families seeking to develop non-agricultural activities, thus creating new jobs, diversifying income sources and reversing rural depopulation.
• "Technical assistance" aims to build modern public administrations for agriculture and rural development by supporting training, analyses, programme monitoring, capacity building.
•  “Advisory services” aim to strengthen the guidance which will contribute to improving the economic and environmental performance of farms and rural micro enterprises.

• After its approval by the European Commission, the IPARD Programme, will be managed by the national institutions. These institutions will ensure the execution of the programme and that funds are transferred to applicants relying on sound financial management principles. This contributes to capacity-building in the field of agriculture and rural development. The Commission supports all parties involved in the management and control of the programmes and funds.

  Important background on past achievements

  IPARD is an integral part of the broader EU pre-accession strategy under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA). Through this tool, the EU provides the beneficiary countries with financial and technical help, with the aim of developing their farming, food production and rural development structures in a sustainable way. It also aims to aligning their agricultural and rural development policies with the EU's common agricultural policy and adapting their agriculture and food sector with the EU food, hygiene and environmental standards.

  IPARD provides grants to investments in agriculture, food processing and rural businesses in 42 provinces of Turkey. Each project is also co-financed by the Turkish public budget and

   

  partly by private investment of the beneficiary. The volume of IPARD's funding is significant: nearly €1.4 billion during the 2007 to 2020 period. When taken together with national Turkish resources and private funding from beneficiaries, the total investment is in the range of €4 billion for the 2007 to 2020 period.

  The IPARD programme has, so far, provided investment support to more than 16,000 projects and it has created an estimated 80.000 jobs in rural areas. Most importantly, it also reaches women and young entrepreneurs: 20% of the investments have been made by women entrepreneurs. Moreover, the IPARD programme reaches the civil society and local authorities through LEADER and the National Rural Network. The IPARD projects are setting a new standard for investments in the Turkish agri-food sector, fully in line with EU standards.

  Related link

  The IPARD programme will be available on the IPARD website: https://ipard.tarim.gov.tr/

   

  For more information, please contact the Delegation:

  Miray Akdağ, Press Counsellor

  Tel: 0312 4598700,

  E-mail: miray.akdag@eeas.europa.eu