Establishment and History
Established in 1985 within the Faculty of Agriculture at Uludağ University, the Department of Agricultural Economics began admitting undergraduate students in the 1993–1994 academic year. Graduate (master's) education in the Department commenced in 1986, and, by decision of the Council of Higher Education (YÖK), doctoral education was also introduced beginning in the Fall semester of 1993. The Department of Agricultural Economics comprises two divisions: Agricultural Management and Agricultural Policy and Extension.
The scope of the Department of Agricultural Economics encompasses the training of contemporary, analytically minded individuals so that agricultural and food activities—spanning the supply of agricultural inputs, the production, processing, and consumption of products, and the use of natural resources—may be carried out in the light of economic science; contributing to scientific and technological advancement in the field; and transferring the knowledge it possesses into practice.
History
The first efforts toward establishing a Faculty of Agriculture in Bursa—a province of considerable agricultural potential—were undertaken in 1968–69, principally by the provincial administrators of Bursa together with the University Founding Association, and these efforts received substantial public support. Indeed, in a report prepared in 1969, the Bursa Provincial Directorate of National Education set out the rationale for including a Faculty of Agriculture within a university to be established in Bursa and requested assistance from Ege University for its foundation.
While efforts to establish a Faculty of Agriculture in Bursa continued, the Faculty Board of the Faculty of Agriculture at Ankara University, at its meeting of 17 April 1975, resolved that the opening of a Faculty of Agriculture in Bursa would be appropriate and that it could provide assistance to this end, and submitted its proposal to the Ankara University Senate. Subsequently, negotiations commenced among the Rectorates of Bursa and Ankara Universities and representatives of the Faculty of Agriculture at Ankara University.
Following the application made to the Ministry of National Education on 11 July 1980 by the Rector of Bursa University, Prof. Dr. Nihat BALKIR, and the favorable opinion of the State Planning Organization, the Ministry of National Education approved the establishment on 11 September 1980. Thereafter, work on the establishment was accelerated, and as a result of favorable discussions with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Rural Affairs, it was decided that the Faculty of Agriculture would begin instruction in buildings belonging to the Bursa Agricultural Vocational High School.
At its session no. 81-9 of 7 May 1981, the Senate of Bursa University resolved to request eight faculty members from the Faculty of Agriculture at Ankara University in order to carry out the establishment of the Faculty of Agriculture. This request was favorably received by Ankara University, and pursuant to the decision of the Faculty Board of the Faculty of Agriculture at Ankara University and Article 46 of Law No. 1750, Prof. Dr. M. Rifat OKUYAN, Prof. Dr. Ahmet ERKUŞ, Prof. Dr. Y. Sabit AĞAOĞLU, Prof. Dr. Halis Ruhi EKİNGEN, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bahattin KOVANCI, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Günal AKBAY, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rahmi KESKİN, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Abdurrahim KORUKÇU were assigned for a period of three years to establish the Faculty of Agriculture at Bursa University.
Convening on 4 June 1981 under the chairmanship of Rector Prof. Dr. Nihat BALKIR, the Founders' Board elected Prof. Dr. M. Rıfat OKUYAN as the first Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at Bursa University. The Faculty Executive Board, formed thereafter, decided to commence undergraduate education with 30 students beginning in the 1981–1982 academic year, and the Faculty of Agriculture at Bursa University began instruction with a ceremony held on 7 December 1981.
By decision of the Faculty Executive Board, all of the first students admitted were placed in the Horticulture undergraduate program. Subsequently, beginning in the 1982–1983 academic year, four separate undergraduate programs were opened in the fields of Horticulture, Field Crops, Food Science and Technology, and Animal Science (Zootechnics), and 105 students were enrolled in these programs. Following these developments, in 1983 the Departments of Plant Protection, Kültürteknik, Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Mechanization, and Soil Science were established. Of these departments, 24 students were admitted to the Kültürteknik Department in the 1988–1989 academic year (its name was changed to the Department of Agricultural Structures and Irrigation in 1991), and 25 students were admitted to the Department of Plant Protection in the 1990–1991 academic year. The Departments of Agricultural Machinery, Agricultural Economics, and Soil Science began admitting students in the 1993–1994 academic year. In 1999, the Department of Landscape Architecture was established.
As part of the restructuring of the Faculties of Agriculture, in 1999, with the contribution of the nine existing departments, five programs were formed in our Faculty: Crop Production, Animal Production, Food Engineering, Agricultural Technology, and Landscape Architecture. However, this structure was revised again in 2003, and the existing structure was consolidated under three programs: Agricultural Engineering, Food Engineering, and Landscape Architecture. In 2009, the Agricultural Engineering Program was closed and a nine-program structure was adopted—comprising Horticulture, Field Crops, Animal Science (Zootechnics), Plant Protection, Agricultural Economics, Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, Food Engineering, Biosystems Engineering, and Landscape Architecture—and instruction at our Faculty continues within this structure to the present day.