Mülkiyet Kaybı Olmadan Mülksüzleşme: Türkiye’de Neoliberal Tarım Politikaları ve Tütün Üreticisinin Dönüşümü (2001-2025)
Dispossession Without Loss of Landownership: Neoliberal Agricultural Policies and the Transformation of Tobacco Producers in Turkey (2001–2025)

Summary/Abstract: This article examines the impact of the neoliberal transformation of agricultural policies in Turkey since 2001 on tobacco producers through the lens of dispossession. Its central argument is that dispossession among tobacco producers does not occur solely through the transfer of land ownership or the complete withdrawal of producers from agricultural production. Rather, in the case of tobacco cultivation, dispossession frequently takes place even when producers retain legal ownership of their land, as their control over production decisions, market access, price negotiations, quality standards, debt relations, and household labor is progressively weakened. In this context, the article introduces and explores the concept of "dispossession without loss of landownership" in relation to tobacco production. The study adopts a comparative case study design focusing on the provinces of Adıyaman and Samsun. It compares two distinct forms of dispossession: in Adıyaman, mechanisms of exclusion from contractual markets, informality, and penal enforcement; and in Samsun, processes of contract farming, corporate control, and dependent integration. The empirical research is designed around semi-structured, in-depth interviews with a total of 40 tobacco producers, comprising 20 participants from Adıyaman and 20 from Samsun. The article aims to explain the class-based, spatial, and institutional transformation of tobacco producers by bringing together Karl Marx's theory of primitive accumulation, Rosa Luxemburg's analysis of capitalist expansion, and David Harvey's concept of accumulation by dispossession, while engaging with the existing literature on Turkish agriculture.

• Details
• Contents