Türkiye

Project overview

Türkiye’s agricultural systems, particularly wheat and livestock, face significant environmental challenges, including land degradation, biodiversity loss, water scarcity and increasing climate variability. In semi-arid regions such as Central Anatolia and Southeast Türkiye, unsustainable practices such as intensive tillage, overgrazing, and inefficient resource use are degrading soils, reducing water availability, and weakening ecosystem resilience.

These challenges are compounded by fragmented governance, limited access to finance, and gaps in technical capacity, which constrain the adoption of more sustainable practices. Small-scale producers are particularly affected by high input costs, limited incentives and insufficient support systems, while weak monitoring and data systems limit learning and scaling of effective approaches.

At the same time, agriculture plays a central role in Türkiye’s economy and rural livelihoods, with extensive land use and high dependence on smallholder farming systems. Without targeted intervention, continued environmental degradation and climate pressures risk undermining productivity, food security and long-term sustainability.
In response, the project supports the transition towards more sustainable and resilient food systems by promoting nature-based solutions that restore ecosystems, improve resource efficiency and strengthen livelihoods, while contributing to national and global environmental goals.

Our approach

The project adopts a systems-based approach to transform food systems by strengthening governance, finance, production systems and knowledge. It improves coordination across sectors, establishes multi-stakeholder platforms and integrates nature-based solutions into national policies, strategies and planning frameworks.

The project enhances access to finance by developing investment models and financial mechanisms for nature-based solutions, strengthening public–private collaboration, and supporting value chain actors in adopting sustainable practices.

At the landscape level, the project promotes practical nature-based solutions in wheat and livestock systems, including improved grazing management, soil carbon enhancement, integrated pest management and water harvesting adapted to semi-arid conditions. It supports the restoration of degraded land, strengthens extension services, and provides training to farmers, cooperatives, and agribusinesses to adopt these practices.

Knowledge generation, monitoring and learning are central, including the development of monitoring systems, knowledge platforms and peer-to-peer learning approaches to support scaling and long-term impact.

Sites

The project will be implemented across multiple provinces, including 

• Kars
• Tekirdağ
• Niğde
• Bingöl
• Kahramanmaraş