Efforts for Increasing the Agricultural Production in the Sanjak of Teke in the Years of First World War

In the First World War, recruitment of the nearly 3 million men to the army and the fact that being the significant part of those men were working in the agriculture dealt a big blow to the agricultural production. Besides, because of the military reasons, a portion of the tools and the animals in the hands of the producers had already been taken for the command of the army. Furthermore, the environment of uncertainty which the war brought, rising prices, crash of the market mechanism and the government’s confiscation practices of the products had been keeping the producer from planting the land. When the import also became impossible, in the first years of the war the army and the society had faced the danger of starvation. Therefore, various measures had been taken to increase the agricultural production. In the Sanjak of Teke, the deficit of workforce emerged in the agricultural sector had been tried to be removed by mobilizing the women, children and the elderly. Large lands which couldn’t be cultivated started to be farmed by the actively using of the agricultural machines in the agricultural depot. Also lands of the families of the soldiers were cultivated and and harvested by the Laborer Battalions (soldiers for public works) and sometimes regular corps. Agricultural organization also has been expanded and agricultural commissions and civil servant ships for the agricultural follow-up have been founded. Through this organization, producers who need seed were determined and with the aids that have been made, farms which couldn’t be cultivated had been gained for the agriculture again. On the other hand, with the participation of the Laborer Battalions and the military units a total fight has been made against the grasshopper infestations which pose a great threat to the agriculture and this disaster has been prevented. Owing to all these efforts, a decrease in the agricultural production had not been seen in the Sanjak as with the rates across the country.