CiteScore: 1.8
SCOPUS 2023
UN SDG
EVENTS
Biotech Studies 2016, Vol 25, Num, 2     (Pages: 357-368)

Oil Seeds and Crude Oil Production in Turkey, Problems and Solutions

Halis ARIOĞLU

1 Çukurova Üniversitesi, Ziraat Fakültesi, Tarla Bitkileri Bölümü, Adana DOI : 10.21566/tarbitderg.284325 - Oils known as triglyceride of fatty acids are very important food and energy source for human. In addition to human consumption, oils are very important for industrial as a raw material. Most of the oils (91.7%) used for human consumption comes from oil crops due to higher production cost and limit supply of animal fats. There are plenty of oil seed crops. Among these, soybean, sunflower, rapeseed, peanut, sesame and safflower are the prevailing annual oil crops. In addition to these annual oil crops, perennial crops such as palm, olive and coconut are also very important for crude oil production. Beside crude oil supply, oil crops have other extra benefits. Soybean and peanut are legume crops and supply nitrogen to the soils by symbiotic nitrogen fixation. The oil seeds production of the world was 532 million tons in 2014 and the highest rate of oil seed production (59.2%) comes from soybean. Due to a lack of oilseed production in Turkey, a large part of the needed requirements are imported directly as crude oil or oil seeds. In 2014, Oil seed production was 2.78 million tons in Turkey. This amount, as domestic production, meets only 28.1% of the annual oil production. According to the projections, our dependence on external supplies of crude oil continues to increase from year to year. In 2014, 286 million $ has been paid for oil and its derivatives import. Turkey has a great agricultural potential to produce all of the required oil seeds with good planning Keywords : Oil crops, Oil seed production, Vegetable oil, Vegetable oil production