Understanding the Impact of Supporting Small-scale Milk Producers in Turkey

ISTANBUL, August 7, 2020: Ninety-two percent of Turkey’s dairy sector is comprised of micro-scale farms (fewer than 20 cows) which produce over 15 billion litres of milk per year. Pınar Süt is a dairy company committed to supporting the sustainability of the dairy sector and small-scale dairy farming in Turkey. The company engages these smallholder dairy farmers as suppliers.

Even though Turkey is one of the top 10 milk-producing countries in the world, small-scale milk production is struggling due to mechanization and the expense of feed and modern equipment for milk production hampers small-scale farmers’ chances of competing with the larger industrial players in the market. Believing that training on quality milk production processes can help small-scale farmers overcome these challenges and remain competitive, Pınar Süt has been supporting small-scale milk producers through their project “The Future of our Milk is in Safe Hands,” training farmers’ on animal health, animal feeding, hygiene, and sanitation.

According to the results of their social impact research conducted as part of the project; most of the smallholder dairy farmers Pınar engages as suppliers depend on agriculture, 58 percent of households live on livestock/dairy farming, 20 percent have other agriculture practices, 11 percent live on pensions and reaming and 11 percent depend on wages, trade or support from family members.

Pınar has conducted several impact measurement studies over the past few years and the experience motivated the company to design a more structured approach that would allow to measure and prove its social and environmental impact.

As a Business Call to Action company, Pınar joined BCtA’s Impact Champions Programme via the Impact Lab to collect more detailed data that supports the company’s decision-making processes, while providing concrete results that support previous field observations.

The Impact Lab provides an end-to-end impact management solution for inclusive businesses. It helps companies develop a Sustainable Development Goals-focused impact framework for data collection, analysis and reporting, and is designed to help companies drive business value while delivering impact by understanding, proving, and improving their contributions to the SDGs.

Pınar’s impact measurement and management journey brought to light three valuable lessons that will shape the company’s decision-making process: Almost 80 percent of the participants stated that they started practising in their own life what they have learned during Pınar’s training, which is an indicator of how the company’s trainings are having an impact on the everyday life of small-scale farmers’ in Turkey. Secondly, the impact measurement study led to the conclusion that women are the group that both internalize education the most and put lessons learned into practice. This important finding will drive Pınar’s efforts to focus on women farmers’ knowhow.  Lastly, they learned two out of every three farmers are over the age of 45, which showed that the participation of the younger generation in milk production was at an all-time low level, raising concerns over the sustainability of the dairy sector in Turkey.

“This impact assessment has provided Pınar with a better understanding of the key issues that the company should focus on,” said Ümit Savcıgil, Director of Pınar Institute. “Since we believe in science-based facts, the results of this impact assessment have become our guide on focus areas and also challenges. After this process, as Pınar, we have a clearer mindset related to dairy farming issues.”

To read about Pınar’s impact measurement and management journey download the case study below:

For more information:

Business Call to Action: bcta@undp.org

Pınar: info@pinarenstitusu.org.tr