National Action Plan for Organic Agriculture 2013 2016.

The Action Plan for Organic Agriculture is a national policy with a cross-sectoral approach. The timeframe of the Policy is 3 years between 2013 and 2016. The overall purpose of this Action Plan is to increase production, consumption and market share of organic products through the development and extension of organic agriculture. This Action Plan is drafted by the Ministry of Food Agriculture and Livestock in cooperation with the universities, government institutions, civil society organizations and professional organizations in order to ensure food safety for all as well as sustainable use of agricultural land. The strategic objectives of this Action Plan are (i) development and extension of organic agriculture, (ii) strengthening control and inspection, (iii) improving data collection infrastructure for effective monitoring, (iv) enabling education and extension services, and (v) capacity building.
Organic production of agricultural products will be increased and integrated into rural development policies. Trainings will be organized to increase the knowledge of the producer and to improve farmer organization. Impact assessments will be carried out on education and extension services.
Organic agriculture will be developed through increase in product diversification and productivity, product traceability, quality standards at EU level, effective control and inspection, continuous state support and incentives, and introduction of new marketing approaches. Existing legislations will be developed and adapted to the amendments in the EU Regulations. The equivalence of national standards with international standards will be ensured through studies on the National Organic Program of the United States Department of Agriculture and the Japanese Agricultural Organic Standard. Institutional capacity building will be enhanced in the fields of water management, risk analysis, biodiversity, plant protection, fertilizers, soil improvement, foodstuffs, processing techniques, market and consumer choice, quality control systems, efficient use of Organic Agriculture Database, Codex Alimentarius, and food controls. An organic production working group will be established to develop alternative marketing channels for organic products, encourage the export of organic products and work on solving the problems related to exports. Projects will be developed to promote organic farming with regards to public health, environmental protection, animal health and protection of natural resources. The conditions for organic certification will be strengthened to ensure consumer protection. Consumer awareness-raising campaigns will be carried out in cooperation with all relevant institutions and organizations. Studies will be conducted to monitor and assess contamination risks in organic products. State support and incentives will be improved in line with the developments in organic agriculture. Risk analysis and inspection will be conducted to the enterprises engaged in organic agriculture with a special emphasis on stores and market places engaged in retail trade of organic products. Data collection and processing infrastructure will be developed to monitor organic agriculture activities from production to placing into market. Organic producers and certified product quantities will be published in Organic Agriculture Database in order to facilitate access to and to encourage the use of organic seed and production materials.
The Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock and the General Directorate of Plant Production shall be responsible for the implementation of this Action Plan. The Directorate of Strategy Development shall be responsible for monitoring and evaluation. The institutions responsible for the implementation of this Action Plan organize annual meetings with the relevant institutions and organizations to evaluate the developments. Furthermore in line with the annual meetings, reports covering six-month period for the activities and developments shall be sent to the Directorate of Strategy Development by the institutions responsible for the implementation of this Action Plan.