Abstract
ABSTRACT Governments in developing countries have used agricultural policies extensively in their developmental efforts, pursuing different goals with a variety of tools. It is widely agreed, however, that insufficient attention has been given to the effects of these policies. The results have been mixed, some times being viewed as generally satisfactory and sometimes not. In some cases the policies have been instituted in response to an immediate and pressing problem. Often the desired results have not been achieved, and there have been unanticipated side effects. Even in the most satisfactory cases, continuing analysis of_ design and change of programs is needed. The price many agricultural commodities and inputs are influenced in a variety of ways by governments of developing countries. Government intervention can and does take place at the stage of production, marketing, consumption. Agricultural price policy involves subsdization of one or more commodities. For example, production of an agricultural commodity can be subsidized through farm price support or by an input subsidy. Other forms of government intervention do not subsidize any commodity explicitly; reserve stocks to moderate year-to-year price fluctuations and seasonal stabilization schemes are examples. Even these apparently` neutral devices, however, may have the unintended effect of favouring or disfavouring the production of consumption of certain commodities. In Turkey, too, governments mostly follow the farm price support and input subsidy policies as a tool of farm support policy. However, political goals play a more affective role in determining this policy than economic ones. As a conclusion, it could be said that it should be continued to the farm support policy but the priority should be given for the social and economic goals rather than political ones.
