ISSN 2039-2117 (online) ISSN 2039-9340 (print) Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences MCSER Publishing, Rome-Italy Vol 6 No 2 S1 March 2015 588 The Evaluation of the Changes in the Agricultural Sector with Common Economic Indicators in Turkey during the Last Decade Sibel Tan Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Faculty of Agriculture, 17100, Çanakkale/Turkey úermin Atak Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Faculty of Economics And Administrative Science at Çanakkale, 17100, Çanakkale/Turkey Ümran úengül Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Faculty of Economics And Administrative Science at Çanakkale, 17100, Çanakkale/Turkey Sabri Sami Tan Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Faculty of Economics And Administrative Science at Biga, 17100, Çanakkale/Turkey Doi:10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n2s1p588 Abstract Agriculture is an important sector in the Turkish Economy in terms of population and employment, nutrition, agricultural production, domestic consumption, its contribution to industry, national income and balance of payments. By current economic indicators in Turkey, while its share in national income is 9.0%, its share in employment is 23.6%. Although the share of agriculture in GDP decreased in Turkey in the last decade, the rate of growth of agricultural sector increased. Whereas cultivated fields and the number of livestock declined, vegetative production and animal production increased significantly. Moreover, the rate of total employment increased, but the rate of agricultural employment decreased. In addition, the use of machine in agriculture increased and the wage of employees in agriculture increased considerably, as well. On the other hand, agricultural support policies in the last decade witnessed major reforms and important support policies were implemented in many areas. In 2013, the share of agricultural subsidies in gross domestic product increased compared to the previous year and an increase in the 2014 budget was targeted. In this study, agriculture-related indicators in Turkey in the last ten years will be evaluated and the last ten-year change and the reasons of this change will be examined. In the light of these changes, agricultural recommendations in terms of future oriented agricultural plans and programs will be presented. Keywords: Agricultural Sector, Economic Indicators, Turkey. 1. Introduction A vision of agriculture as a sector practicing only plant and livestock production activities to meet the food and other agriculture-originated product demands of people and providing the surplus to export is a significant deficiency (Erkuú et al., 2005). Agriculture should perform four basic functions while transition from an agriculture-dominated economy to an industrialized economy. Agriculture before all should supply the food demands of country population. Agriculture should create a production surplus to support the required currency demands of export. Agriculture, bearing the capital and labor transfer to other sectors of the economy, should create a demand potential for industrial goods of the country (Cinemre and Kﾕlﾕç, 2011). Therefore, agriculture always keeps its significance in Turkish economy with regard to population and employment, nutrition, agricultural production, domestic consumption, supports to industry, national income and balance of payments. Turkey with its geographical position, climate pattern and product diversity has a rich agricultural potential. However, unregistered productions, insufficient activity of producer organizations, unstable agricultural policies and unplanned production models all together create serious problems in the sector. Since a planned production model complying with internal and external demands is not adopted, supply surplus and consequent producer price decreases are observed in some products and supply deficit and consequent imports are observed in others. On the other hand, labor surplus in agriculture because of machinery use and the decreases in income levels of people living in rural parts of the country rushed up the migrations from the rural to urban sections of the country. Economic indicators revealed that the share of agriculture in GDP and employment has gradually decreased. Compared