Dr. Mehmet Mehdi Eker Minister for Agriculture and Rural Affairs Turkey

Dr Mehmet Mehdi Eker was appointed as Minister for Agriculture and Rural Affairs in 2005. He previously held positions in the ministry as Secretary General of the Board of High Steward, Director General of Protection and Control, and Assistant Director General, General Directorate of Agricultural Production and Development (TÜGEM). 

Dr Eker received his doctorate from Ankara University in 1997 following a Ph.D thesis on the prediction of the expenditure of bovine mastitis of some agricultural enterprises in the Marmara and Thracian region, and the implementation of information systems in the struggle. He had previously received an M.Sc. from the University of Aberdeen in 1992, having written a thesis on the use of information in the economic control of bovine mastitis. From 1982 to 1989 he was a veterinarian specialist with the Directorate of the Board of Research, Plan and Coordination of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. 

He is a former member of the Turkish groups of the MP Assembly of the European Council and of the West European Union, Inter-Parliamentary European Security and Defence Assembly.