WASHINGTON, September 24, 2026—The World Bank Group approved a $750 million financing package for the Türkiye Agrifood Sector Transformation for Rural Jobs and Growth (TARGET) Project, which will expand access to finance for farmers, agrifood enterprises and producer organizations in Türkiye, improving competitiveness and creating more and better-paid jobs.
TARGET is expected to benefit approximately 225,000 farmers, generate an estimated 110,000 more and better-paid job across Türkiye’s agrifood economy and $670 million in private capital, demonstrating the World Bank Group’s commitment to leveraging public resources to attract greater private sector investment into sustainable development.
“Türkiye has enormous potential to further strengthen the competitiveness and sustainability of its agrifood sector,” said Jean-Christophe Carret, World Bank Country Director for Türkiye. “TARGET will help farmers, producer organizations, and agribusinesses access the financing, technology, and market opportunities they need to thrive in a changing economic and climate environment. By mobilizing private capital alongside public resources, the project will support rural jobs, improve productivity, and help position Türkiye as an even stronger player in regional and global agrifood markets.”
Agriculture remains a cornerstone of Türkiye’s economy, contributing to food security, exports, and rural livelihoods. Yet the sector faces persistent challenges, including fragmented production and value chains, limited access to long-term finance, vulnerability to climate shocks, and insufficient investment in value addition and logistics. TARGET will address these constraints by strengthening the links between farmers, producer organizations, and agrifood enterprises. Supported investments will help aggregate and coordinate supply, improve farmers’ access to technology and services, strengthen quality and traceability, facilitate compliance with market standards, and build more stable commercial relationships with buyers, while investing in processing, storage, cold-chain infrastructure, logistics, and digital systems.
By 2032, TARGET is expected to benefit approximately 225,000 farmers, including around 193,000 farmers participating in stronger commercial market arrangements and 26,300 farmers gaining expanded access to finance. It will also generate an estimated 110,000 more and better-paid job across Türkiye’s agrifood economy, including in less development regions and for women and youth, helping ensure that the benefits of agrifood transformation are broadly shared.
The project will be implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MoAF) through the Agriculture and Rural Development Support Institution (TKDK) and combines two innovative financing instruments designed to crowd in private investment.
At the core of TARGET is a new approach to public support for agrifood investment to mobilize additional private resources. The project combines reimbursable financing for transformative agrifood investments with a partial credit guarantee that will enable commercial banks to expand lending to farmers. Through a $720 million Reimbursable Finance Facility (RFF), TARGET will provide long-term financing to agrifood enterprises and producer organizations for investments that strengthen value chains, increase climate resilience, improve food safety and quality systems, and connect farmers to domestic and international markets. RFF’s supported investments are expected to mobilize an additional $144 million in private co-financing.
In parallel, the deployment of a Partial Credit Guarantee scheme will expand access to commercial lending for farmers by reducing risk for participating financial institutions. Backed by $30 million in World Bank financing, the mechanism is expected to mobilize approximately $526 million in commercial lending, helping farmers invest in productivity, modernization, and climate-resilient technologies.
The initiative also reflects close collaboration between the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which will complement the project with advisory support and investments aimed at strengthening agribusiness capacities and access to finance.
Investments will support resilient technologies, cold chain and storage improvements, precision agriculture solutions, climate-smart production systems, and measures to reduce food loss and waste. Over a 20-year period, the project is expected to contribute to significant greenhouse gas emissions reductions while strengthening the resilience of agrifood value chains to droughts, heatwaves, water scarcity, frost events, and other climate-related shocks.
TARGET is the first operation under the World Bank Group’s broader Europe and Central Asia AgriConnect Program, a multi-country regional financing initiative to accelerate agrifood transformation, strengthen market integration, mobilize private investment, and create more and better-paid jobs across the region.
