Agricultural land use change and sustainable use of land resources in the mediterranean region of Turkey

Agricultural land use has changed in the Mediterranean Region particularly since the 1950s. Factors affecting these changes include increasing agricultural productivity and intensification, changes in population density industrialization, urbanization, tourism, agricultural mechanization and use of agri-chemicals. Farms have been fragmented and the average farm size has decreased because of rapid rural population growth. During this period, most pasture and meadow land has been transformed into crop cultivation. Once productive farmlands have been used for industrialization, urbanization and tourist developments. For sustainable agricultural land use, new legal and institutional regulations are required, which integrate environmental concerns and agricultural policies. These regulations must be defined in terms of multiple use of agricultural land and strict conservation of prime agricultural land. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd.