Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Bekir Pakdemirli, in his speech at the Forage Crops Seed Distribution Programme held at Kemalpasa Forestry Management Directorate, stated that he was happy to initiate an important project that will strengthen the production and support the farmer.
The minister pointed out that a profitable production in animal husbandry is possible by reducing input costs, and in this context, as the ministry, they provide significant support to the cultivation of forage crops in order to increase the cultivation areas of forage crops and silage production, to meet the need for roughage from domestic sources, and to obtain cheaper and higher quality feed. He also mentioned that they aim to increase their grazing capacity by 50 percent with the meadow-pasture improvement and management projects they initiated.
Pakdemirli said that the ministry provided 786 million liras of support for forage plants in 1 million hectares in 2019. He explained that with a total of 7 billion liras support made in the last 18 years, the cultivation area of forage crops increased by 3 times to 2.3 million hectares and the production of roughage increased 2 times to 69 million tons.
Pointing out that they also supported silage soybean this year, Pakdemirli stated that the support unit prices of the sorghum, Sudan grass and sorghum Sudan grass hybrid forage plants grown in watery environment will be increased.
Native seeds were planted in Aegean region
Pakdemirli said:
‘’We will distribute 218 tons of vetch seeds and 72 tons of oat seeds to be planted on 14 thousand 564 decares, to 243 producers in 10 districts of Izmir within the programme we started today. Alper variety vetch seed and Yellow variety oat seed that we will distribute were developed by the Aegean Agricultural Research Institute. We will implement this important project, 75 percent of which is a grant, in 13 provinces in addition to Izmir, on a total area of 210 thousand decares.
The other part of the project consists of “seed support whose 75 percent is grant of for single-year and perennial forage crops cultivation to become widespread in fallow or empty agricultural lands. Within the scope of these two projects, we aim to provide additional added value to our country by producing on a total of 1 million decares of land.’’
Good news for cotton manufacturers
Pakdemirli stated that there is good news for Izmir cotton manufacturers and emphasized that Turkey is globally an important exporter and manufacturer in textile products. He said:
‘’ Turkey is one of the most important cotton manufacturers globally. We globally ranked 6th in the cotton production and 3rd in yield. Thanks to the successful policies and supports we have implemented in the last 18 years; cotton seed yield has increased by 40 percent per decare and reached 500 kilograms. The good news is that, we aim to increase both production and efficiency.
As you know, the premium support in cotton was 80 cents per kilogram. As a result of the demands from our producers and the detailed analysis we made, we increased the cotton seed premium by 37.5 percent to 1.1 lira per kilogram. In addition, we will pay support of 1.23 lira per kilogram to cotton producers, along with diesel and fertilizer support. Good luck with it. Here I emphasize this in particular. We pay the highest amount of support to cotton manufacturers among the premium supports with diesel and fertilizer supports. As the ministry, we have always been with our producers, and we will continue to do so.”
Other important speechmakers at the Forage Crops Seed Distribution Programme
Mehmet Hasdemir, the General Director of Crop Production at Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry stated that they are trying to channel the soil and water resources to the right products.
The Governor, Yavuz Selim Kosger also said:
‘’Izmir has developed in the livestock sector thanks to its mild climate, government support and informed farmers. Seeds used in forage production will be distributed to our farmers in 10 districts that have significant capacity in agricultural production. A project that will set an example for state-nation cooperation is put into service. “
Yasar Kirkpinar the Izmir deputy of Justice and Development party (AK party) said:
‘’Turkey has a very strong food chain infrastructure as we see it in the pandemic period. We say we have a health army, we can say ‘we also have an army of food’ because they passed the test without breaking the food chain.”
After the speeches, Minister Pakdemirli made a symbolic distribution of seeds to the farmers.
source: AA / translated by Melisa Karayusufoglu