80 years ago, agricultural organizations were set up in the last 50 years. Farmer chambers were first established in 1881; they became active mainly after the 1960s. Similarly, agricultural credit cooperatives were set up in the 1930s, but only started to act effectively in the 1950s. Extension services function under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in each province and county. Additionally, some agricultural cooperatives focus on one crop or crop group. Agricultural producer organizations in Turkey can be classified into cooperatives, producer unions and agricultural chambers (Table 2-11).

Turkey has over 700 agricultural chambers, with about four million producer members. They mostly provide vocational services and represent farmers. These organizations specialize in certain products or product groups and in provinces or districts. As the legal framework for these organizations is recent, the number of unions and members is rather low but shows a strong increase.

The Milk Producer Central Union has seven milk producer associations. Agricultural credit cooperatives are organized with a central association and 16 subassociations with about 1.5 million members. Agricultural cooperatives are composed of agricultural development cooperatives, irrigation cooperatives, fisheries cooperatives and sugar beet cooperatives. The agricultural development cooperatives promote activities related to producing and marketing crops, livestock and husbandry. These organizations are often multipurpose and usually not specialized.

Agricultural sales cooperatives and associations are generally specialized in crop products, processing and sales. The agricultural sales cooperatives purchase the products of their members. The unions take all the necessary measures for these products to be utilized in the best circumstances. They handle storage, standardization, first processing, transporting, packaging, export and domestic sales of finished and semi-finished products, provide all the inputs for agricultural production and support shareholders with credits and insurance for the producers.

In addition to these organizations, there are some small

local farmer unions and cooperatives. The government has recently started to encourage farmers to become organized by setting up new regulations. Some professional associations have also been established.

2.2.5 Agricultural risk management policies, including drought risk

Agriculture is regarded as one of the most risky activities because of price, inelastic demand, short-run supply and exposure to natural shocks. In CWANA, agricultural risks also have extremely variable climate and recent economic changes that came with liberalization, which profoundly affected farm operations. Worldwide, economic changes and degradation of natural resources, diminishing water resources, pollution and climate change have prompted additional attention to risk. Interest in strategies and tools for managing market risk has increased in recent years.

2.2.5.1 Main risks affecting agricultural activity in CWANA

The diverse risks affecting agricultural activity in CWANA are (1) production risks, related to weather, including drought and pests and diseases, (2) ecological risks from managing natural resources, such as water, (3) market risks, mainly from variable output and input prices and from particular markets, such as quality and safety requirements for exports and (4) institutional risks linked to state intervention. Although it has great diversity in climate and natural environment, CWANA in general has low, highly variable annual rainfall and a high degree of aridity. In the largest part of CWANA, especially in North Africa and the Near East, drought is recurrent, resulting from physical determinants and social factors. Increased cultivation of marginal and fragile arid lands, soil erosion and runoff exacerbate the region's vulnerability to drought and often lead to irreversible desertification. In recent years, most countries of the region have had severe drought and consequently, growing water shortages. In North Africa, the Near East, Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan recent reports of the Intergovernmental Panel