Pakistan, Syria and particularly Turkey seem to have opted for intensive agriculture since the 1960s. Data obtained from the FAO time series show the total number of agricultural tractors increased more than 20-fold between 1961 and 2002 in South Asia and West Asia. It increased fourfold in Northern Africa, Nile Valley and Red Sea countries.

During the last 50 years, fertilizer use has increased significantly across CWANA. Turkey invested in huge fertilizer plants in the 1960s and 1970s. In Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia, governments also invested in fertilizer production, although these investments were less than those in Turkey. Fertilizer use is currently about 7.5% of world consumption (10.46x106 tonnes); before it was 1.7% (0.53x106 tonnes). This increase is still occurring in Southwest Asia, although in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula fertilizer use has slowed significantly or fallen.

Profiting from important government subsidies, insecticides, pesticides and herbicides for pest and disease management were introduced. Their production and marketing stayed in the hands of large multinational firms that created local subsidiaries. Turkey, Morocco and Egypt host multinational affiliates, while other CWANA countries import inputs. The fall in government subsidies to agriculture, since the 1980s in Turkey and Egypt and since the 1990s in Morocco, has had a negative effect on the use of these products. Another reason for the decline in use are changes in international rules, e.g., banning the use of pesticides in fresh produce for general food safety and environmental concerns. North African countries, Egypt and Turkey limit use of these inputs on agricultural products for export, while Syria started to increase their use in the second half of the 1990s.

Use of agricultural chemicals is uneven among farmers. Small-scale landholders all over CWANA continue to practice traditional agriculture, while capital-intensive agriculture is practiced by only a small portion of wealthy landholders. However, there are no statistical data to show this, and real field research is drastically lacking in this area.

The increased use of certified seeds and the development of variety protection in CWANA subregions are governmental concerns and have been included in international grant programs since the beginning of the 2000s. Most of the countries, like Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran and Syria, intensified state initiatives to create seed trade associations to improve relationships among breeders, producers and farmers. Afghanistan is profiting from a USAID financial grant that helped it establish 20 village enterprises in five target provinces to produce and distribute certified seeds to farmers. Syria received a grant from the Japanese government that helped the Syrian General Organization for Seed Multiplication found a culture laboratory. Turkey stands out because it started seed improvement programs in the 1980s. The Turkish seed industry has shown remarkable progress the last 25 years. In Turkey, nearly 150 private seed companies deal with hybrids, vegetables and forage crops; foreign investments, mainly from the Netherlands, Israel and the United States of America, account for approximately one-quarter of them. A new law enacted in 2005 gathers dominant seed companies under one roof to better coordinate efforts.

Since liberalization policies were put in place, state control is loosening in the agricultural inputs market. Marketing

channels are controlled more and more by NGOs (national associations or international organizations) or private enterprises. Governments still undertake important infrastructure investment in irrigation systems, but agricultural chemicals are now marketed mainly by private enterprises. State subsidies have been greatly reduced, affecting the use of these chemicals by small landholders. The decreased use of agricultural chemicals is in line with new international measures to reduce or eradicate pesticide residues or nitrates in water. However, lack of integrated agriculture has significantly reduced agricultural yields.

2.1.2.7 Animal products

The 1990s saw important structural changes in product markets, when many countries of West Asia, South Asia and some countries in North Africa invested in raising livestock and developed milk-processing industries. In Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco, heavy public investment resulted in an increase in milk production between 1961 and 2005. Milk became a commodity with high value. In all, CWANA milk production per capita increased considerably. For Nile Valley and Red Sea countries this sector really took off in the early 1980s and sharply increased from the mid-1980s to the present. Accordingly, there has been an increase in the number and capacity of milk-processing industries in these countries, creating an attraction for foreign investment.

Meat production did not show the same increase as milk production between 1961 and 2005. The South Asian and West Asian countries increased meat production from about 110,000 tonnes (1961-1966 average) to nearly 6,000,000 tonnes (2001-2005) the last 40 years. But their high population increase somewhat saps this positive trend, so the yearly meat production per capita stays relatively low, when compared with industrialized Western countries. In North African countries and in the Arabian Peninsula, yearly meat production per capita increased considerably between 1961 and 2005, while in Central Asian and Caucasus countries a fall occurred, from 34 kg per capita annually during 1986- 1990 to 27 kg per capita annually from 2001-2005. The poultry sector showed the most important increase with the spread of intensive production.

2.1.2.8 CWANA case studies

To understand how cropping patterns changed, five countries have been selected for detailed examination: Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, Morocco, Egypt.

Turkey. Turkey is self-sufficient in food and is also the largest exporter of agricultural products in CWANA. Turkey has the most arable land in CWANA, 11th in the world, and its climate gives it the highest yield capacity. All field crops, including aromatic plants and different fruits and vegetables, can easily be produced.

During the last 50 years, arable land increased with only small modifications in the cropping systems. The main crop is wheat; it has had the highest value of all agricultural products for 50 years (FAO, 2007). Its area increased, but its percentage in the cropping system stayed stable, between 43 and 45%. Oats, rye and forage declined in importance and chickpea and lentils have replaced fallow areas. Grape