The agricultural sector holds a strategic position as it meets the rapidly growing food demand of the global population, supplies raw materials to industry, and generates employment. However, its dependence on natural and climatic conditions makes state intervention in this sector inevitable. In Türkiye, agricultural policies were implemented with a protectionist approach before 1980, while the 2000s saw the introduction of the Direct Income Support (DIS) system. Today, these policies continue through various mechanisms such as area-based supports, deficiency payments, and rural development programs. Nevertheless, these policies have not always yielded the expected outcomes. One of the most striking examples is that despite the steady increase in the agricultural budget over the years, agricultural GDP has remained stagnant. The fact that supports which boost production in the short term fail to maintain the same impact in the long term indicates that resources are not being fully allocated to productive areas or reaching genuine producers. Moreover, structural problems such as small and fragmented farm structures, along with low productivity, further constrain the effectiveness of these supports.

This situation leads to the destabilization of agricultural supply security and weakens its sustainability. Therefore, due to the dependence of agricultural production on natural and climatic conditions, the inelastic nature of supply and demand, and market risks such as King’s Law (the paradox of abundance), state intervention and the implementation of support policies remain indispensable. For the long-term sustainability of food supply security, it is not enough to merely increase the amount of support; these supports must also be restructured to be productivity-oriented. In this context, redesigning supports to reduce input costs, preventing land fragmentation, strengthening irrigation infrastructure, and ensuring long-term policy stability emerge as essential elements to enhance effectiveness.

This study evaluates the effectiveness of various fiscal incentives, particularly agricultural support policies, implemented to ensure food supply security in Türkiye. It examines the historical development of these fiscal instruments and assesses their impacts on production and productivity.