Under Which Conditions of Turkey Organic Wheat Farming Could Be Better Alternative

The organic wheat production has very small amounts in total wheat acreage and production of Turkey. The low yield in organic wheat is one of the biggest challenges in transition from conventional farming into organic farming. However, the yield gap between conventional and organic wheat decreases, as the yield of the conventional wheat decreases. The many wheat farmers in Turkey obtain very low yields, since they have small-scale farms and use low inputs. In addition, the wheat/input parities decrease year by year, while cost of conventional wheat production progressively increases. On the other hand, the conservative tillage systems such as minimum tillage and no-till should be applied because of the negative effects of the conventional tillage on the soils organic matter content. The local wheat landraces selected in the long term without agricultural chemicals are very important resources for organic farming. Therefore, it is suggested that the organic wheat farming could be better alternative to conventional wheat farming in the ecologies with lower yields than the average yield of Turkey, in farms with the small-scale and using low-input, in the lands to be improved soil quality by no-till application and in cases to be preferred the growth of local landraces