Decent Work Deficits Faced By Seasonal Agricultural Workers in Türkiye within the Context of Global Supply Chains

Türkiye is situated in the fertile lands of the Asia Minor, yielding diversity of agricultural crops. Five million agricultural workers in the country work to feed not only the domestic population but also the consumers from across the world regardless of proximity, with the EU, Russia, the USA and Syria being among the primary destinations. Agricultural products travel along complex routes of global supply chains after which small agricultural producers, peasants and agricultural workers are left at the margins with gradually declining terms of trade in this global food regime. Fruits and vegetables including high-value crops with high market demand constitute one third of total agricultural exports of Türkiye. These crops require labour-intensive methods making agriculture a significant employment generator. Majority of agricultural labour force comprises the seasonal agricultural workers including the poorest households from certain geographical parts of the country and an increasing number of refugees. Seasonal agricultural workers mostly inherit family legacies of mobile and casual work without decent housing and access to basic services. They offer their labour into a loosely regulated market on the basis of exploitation and self-exploitation, intersectional discriminations, lack of social protection and formal employment, intergenerational transfer of poverty with low levels of education and high prevalence of negative coping mechanisms such as child labour. Against this backdrop, Government of Türkiye, development partners, Multinational Enterprises, producers, NGOs and the wider consumer society assume diverse roles and interests within the causality chain of this decent work deficit in vegetable and fruit production in Türkiye. In this respect, this paper will question the actors, conditions and labour relations in seasonal agriculture and the broader policy ecosystem in Türkiye that generate and address decent work deficits for seasonal agricultural workers in the context of conflicting interests within global supply chains of fruits and vegetables.