*The Strategic Importance of Cotton Production for the World and Türkiye DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114084*

considered. The construction of irrigation facilities in the Sakarya Valley to make use of the Sakarya river and Porsuk stream, enabled the development of cotton farming in this region [27]. In this period, the experience of foreign experts was also used in the development of cotton farming. While the production increase attempts continued on the one hand, the establishment of cotton plants formed the basis of Turkish Industry sector [28]. The incentives provided for the expansion of cotton production, the provision of infrastructure services, and product purchase guarantees, along with the establishment of state factories, Türkiye has reached its current state in cotton production and processing.

Turkish cotton acreage for the 20-year period between 2001 and 2020 is given in **Table 7**. A decrease of about 47% was recorded during this period, more than the decrease in world cotton acreage in percentage. As a result, although fluctuated throughout this period, the share of Türkiye in world cotton acreage decreased to about 1% from about 2% and cotton cultivation area is 1.13%. It is seen that cotton cultivation areas in Türkiye are fluctuating and decreasing.


#### **Table 7.**

*Cotton acreage of Türkiye and its share in total world cotton acreage.*

Having opened to irrigation by the implementation of the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP), the Southeastern region has turned into new cotton production areas. The provinces with the highest cotton acreages are presented in **Table 8**. According to the 2021 statistics, Şanlıurfa, Diyarbakır, Aydın, Hatay, Adana and İzmir provinces have 86% of Turkish cotton acreage [29]. Even the southeastern provinces of Türkiye, Şanlıurfa and Diyarbakır, rank first and second in cotton acreage respectively. Adana province where cotton production first started in Türkiye, only managed to find 6th place in the list.

According to 2021 statistics seed cotton production in Türkiye was 2250 thousand tonnes. The shares of the leading provinces in cotton production are given in **Table 9**. Nearly 60% of seed cotton production is achieved in the Southeastern Anatolia region (**Table 9**). Adana province, which once produced more than half of Türkiye's cotton production, ranks sixth in production as in acreage due to that it has now turned to different agricultural products [16].

While having a share of about 1% in world cotton exports Türkiye's share in world cotton imports is quite high with more than 12%. Whereas Türkiye was an important exporter in meeting the world's cotton demand. However, the rapid development of the Turkish textile industry has led to an increase in the demand for cotton.


#### **Table 8.**

*Cotton acreage by province between 2017 and 2021 (in thousand decares).*


*The Strategic Importance of Cotton Production for the World and Türkiye DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114084*

#### **Table 9.**

*Unseeded cotton production amount by province between 2017 and 2021 (thousand tonnes).*

Consequently, Türkiye has become one of the important cotton importers due to insufficient production to meet the domestic demand [29].

Seed cotton export and import quantities of Türkiye were about 136 thousand tonnes and 1200 thousand tonnes respectively in the year 2021. Turkish seed cotton exports and imports are presented by countries in **Figure 1** [30].

With the increased awareness of the non-biodegradability of synthetic fibers, their damage to the environment, and the augmented importance of human and environmental health especially with the effect of COVID-19 pandemic the share of cotton in the world market has been increasing day by day [29].

Although having been a net seed cotton importer in recent years, Türkiye gained multi-benefits from processing the imported seed cotton into yarn for textile industry, oil for human nutrition and pulp for animal nutirition. Thus, cotton import meets the demand of the textile and ready-made clothing manufacturing industry, which brings about growth of the sector, resulting in an increase in employment and export revenues [31].

Both domestic seed cotton production and imported seed cotton are utilized to create added value in the textile and ready-made clothing industry.

#### **Figure 1.**

*Cotton export (a) and import (b) of Türkiye by country in 2021.*

Türkiye's textiles imports and exports were about 7.8 billion dollars and 12.3 billion dollars respectively in 2020. Ready-to-wear exports were about 15 billion dollars, as the imports were around 1.3 billion dollars. When we consider the total export and import values including textile, ready-made clothing and leather products Türkiye had a net foreign trade surplus of about 18 billion dollars in this sector (**Table 10**).

The development course of the textile, ready-made clothing industry had an increasing trend in general, except the years between 2008 and 2010. The global economic crisis that started in the USA affected Turkish Agriculture parallel to its worldwide harmful effects.

Since agricultural products are the basic consumables, they are compulsorily demanded by consumers. In addition, the effects of the crisis were felt less in this sector since they are less sensitive to changes in supply and demand. The shrinkage in demand for agricultural products during crisis is less than that for industrial goods [31].

Therefore, the effects of the crisis were felt less in agriculture-based industries, compared to other industries.

It is thought that cotton will continue to be one of Türkiye's most strategic products as long as we cannot steer the employment created by the textile and ready-to-wear industry to more profitable areas and produce a more value-added agricultural product than cotton. Cotton is an agricultural crop with no alternative for Türkiye and accordingly, cotton-related policies should be in line with this strategic


#### **Table 10.**

*Turkish textile and ready-made clothing foreign trade values for the year 2020 (in million dollars).*

### *The Strategic Importance of Cotton Production for the World and Türkiye DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114084*

importance in Türkiye. The economic cost of the abandonment of cotton farming will definitely be much higher than the burden on the budget due to the support payments and the subsidies for sustainable cotton production today. The employment created in agriculture and industry, the main and by-products, and the positive effect on the balance of payments make cotton indispensable for Türkiye.

In the Turkish National Cotton Industry Report it was declared that "627 thousand tonnes of fiber cotton and 883 thousand tonnes of cottonseed were obtained from 2.2 million tonnes of cotton seed production in the 2019/20 season. In addition, 133 thousand tonnes of edible oil and 618 thousand tonnes of fodder pulp were obtained from the processing of cottonseed as well as 44 thousand tonnes of linter and 96 thousand tonnes of cotton waste were made available to many industries, especially medical supplies and cosmetics. In this sense, when only the main product, 'fiber cotton', is considered, it will be obvious that through processing in textile and ready-made clothing industries domestic cotton production, which is worth 1 billion 204 million dollars, brought to national economy with an increase 11 times in gross and 2.5 times in net value. That almost half (45.17%) was obtained in foreign currency increases the importance of this earning even more.

With the inclusion of sustainability, environmental, social and economic dimensions among the priorities of the cotton industry, cotton, which is a basic and indispensable raw material and natural fiber, has become more important for the textile and ready-made clothing industries. With its easy biodegradability property due to being a cellulose-based natural fiber, cotton has an important advantage especially when compared to polyester and other synthetic fibers. In addition to that Türkiye has also an important place in the use of sustainable cotton production methods, such as organic and 'Better' cotton production, even conventionally grown cotton has also sustainability since Turkish cotton is non-GMO.
