KAPLAN (2026) Strategıc Transformatıon ın Land Use: The Declıne of Fallow Lands and Agrıcultural Intensıfıcatıon

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Asian Journal of Research in Agriculture and Forestry
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-01-28
• Authors: Fatma KAPLAN
• DOI: 10.9734/ajraf/2026/v12i1472

Research Groups

The specific research groups, labs, or departments conducting the study are not explicitly mentioned in the provided text. However, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) is identified as the primary data source.

Short Summary

This study analyzes the rapid decline of traditional fallow practice in Turkey between 2015 and 2024, revealing a 35.5% nationwide reduction in fallow area, primarily converted to continuous cereal cultivation and irrigated perennial crops, which poses significant sustainability risks to water and soil resources.

Objective

• To quantify the extent and spatial patterns of the decline in traditional fallow agricultural land use in Turkey between 2015 and 2024, identify the primary land-use shifts driving this transformation, and critically examine its sustainability trade-offs and implications for agricultural resilience.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Nationwide Turkey, with spatial analysis at the NUTS-1 (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics, Level 1) regional level.
• Temporal Scale: 2015 to 2024.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Not explicitly stated; the analysis relies on quantification and spatial analysis of official statistics.
• Data sources: Official data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).

Main Results

• A dramatic nationwide reduction of 35.5% in fallow area occurred, decreasing from 4.11 million hectares to 2.66 million hectares.
• This decline was markedly non-uniform, concentrated in arid and semi-arid interior regions where fallow is critical for risk management.
• The most pronounced regional contraction was in Eastern Anatolia (TRB) with a 30.9% decline, followed by significant losses in Central Anatolia (TR7).
• Abandoned fallow lands are predominantly being converted to continuous cereal cultivation, indicating an intensification of traditional crop rotation, and to a lesser extent, to irrigated perennial crops such as orchards.
• This shift creates a "dual threat" by expanding water-intensive agriculture and losing a vital soil moisture-replenishment mechanism, exacerbating pressure on groundwater resources and increasing risks of soil organic matter depletion, erosion, and long-term degradation.

Contributions

• Provides a detailed, spatially explicit analysis of a critical and understudied land-use transformation within Turkish agriculture.
• Quantifies the significant decline in fallow land and its regional disparities.
• Identifies the specific land-use changes (conversion to continuous cereals and irrigated crops) driving the transformation.
• Highlights the critical sustainability trade-offs and "dual threat" posed by this intensification to water and soil resources.
• Proposes an urgent policy reorientation with concrete recommendations for sustainable agricultural practices (e.g., smart fallow, conservation agriculture, drought-resistant varieties, basin-based water management).

Funding

The provided text does not specify any funding projects, programs, or reference codes for this research.

Citation

@article{KAPLAN2026Strategıc,
  author = {KAPLAN, Fatma},
  title = {Strategıc Transformatıon ın Land Use: The Declıne of Fallow Lands and Agrıcultural Intensıfıcatıon},
  journal = {Asian Journal of Research in Agriculture and Forestry},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.9734/ajraf/2026/v12i1472},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.9734/ajraf/2026/v12i1472}
}