Uplands Rural Development Programme

The programme is designed to strengthen economic opportunities for poor smallholder farmers in the uplands of Turkey. It aims to enhance their prosperity and resilience through connecting and integrating farms and agribusinesses into more profitable economic clusters while making sustainable use of natural resources and increasing the climate-adaptive capacity of smallholders. Its core strategy relies on an economic clustering approach and the mobilization of private financial resources to support agribusiness development and improve access to financial services.

The programme has two components:

• Clustering for resilient rural transformation through ‘’economic development clusters’’ for increased production and marketing of key commodities in upland areas.
• Inclusive rural finance, through rural credit guarantee and support facilities.

The activities currently involve six provinces in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Western Black Sea regions, where farmland and pasture are mostly above 600 metres of elevation and where most forest villages are located. Later during implementation, two additional provinces could be involved. The programme aims to target around 30,000 households, including a small portion (120-150) of transhumant pastoralist families.

Target groups include the economically active poor who are producing at semi-subsistence level, those with upside potential, and transformation drivers (suppliers, traders and agribusinesses).