Stating that they left behind a productive season in plant production last year, Bekir Pakdemirli, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, said, “Despite the meteorological drought, our total crop production increased by 9 million tons in 2020 to 126 million tons and broke the record in the history of the Republic.”
Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Bekir Pakdemirli met with the Provincial Directors of Agriculture and Forestry and Regional Forestry Managers at the meeting held online and evaluated the performances of the last year.
Pakdemirli stated that the pandemic is still at the top of the world agenda and that agriculture and food were among the sectors most affected by this process last year. Pakdemirli said, “Countries have closed their borders, there have been major disruptions in access to agriculture and food, logistics and supply chains. Thank God, under the leadership of our President and with the devotion of our sector, we successfully carried out this process and we continue to do so. 106 measures we have taken in the field of agriculture and food have been effectively implemented with the intense effort of our staff in 81 provinces. Thus, our farmers continued to cultivate, production increased, and agriculture continued to grow. Again, by directing the food supply and logistics chains, we ensured that our citizens can easily reach the food products they need. Of course, the pandemic process is not over yet. Currently, we have entered a period of full lockdown until after Eid al-Fitr. In this period, our exemptions for our producers and food operations continue, as they did last year, for the uninterrupted continuation of production. The harvest period will now start this month. Therefore, we will need you more in the field.”
‘WE WILL START ANNOUNCING THE PURCHASE PRICES’
Stating that they implemented both an increase in support and effective intervention purchases after the Presidential Government System, Pakdemirli said, “In the last 3 years, we increased agricultural support by 65%, to ₺24 billion. We increased the cotton premium support by 37.5%, the sunflower premium from ₺1 to 10 kurus by 25% to 50 kurus. This year, we increased the fertilizer support by 100% with the instruction of our President. We paid more than 50% of the herbal production support in the first 4 months. We implement manufacturer-friendly policies in intervention purchases, and we do this without harming our intervention institutions. As we enter the new harvest season this year, we will start again to announce the purchase prices. Nobody should doubt that we will announce the prices that will satisfy our producers by closely following the markets in the world and in our country.”
‘OUR PLANT PRODUCTION BROKEN THE RECORD OF THE HISTORY OF THE REPUBLIC’
Underlining that they left behind a productive season in plant production in 2020, Minister Pakdemirli said:
“Of course, behind this development in crop production, the investments we have made in the field of irrigation have a great contribution. In the last 19 years, we built 600 dams with an investment of ₺276 billion. Especially thanks to these investments, despite the meteorological drought, our total crop production increased by 9 million tons in 2020 to 126 million tons, breaking the record in the history of the Republic. This year, as I have just mentioned, if we can get close to the level of precipitation we want in May, we aim to complete the season without experiencing a huge loss in production compared to the previous year. In addition, we aim to reduce the impact of drought with new agricultural areas to be opened to irrigation. In this context, we declared the year 2021 as the “Year of Breakthrough in Water and Irrigation Investments”. I hope we will build 18 dams, 72 ponds and dams this year. We have also accelerated our work on underground dams. Currently, we have completed 26 underground dams. By the end of the year, we will have increased this number to 50. We aim to complete a total of 150 underground dams by 2023.”
‘OUR CATTLE ASSETS REACHED THE HIGHEST LEVEL’
Stating that the livestock sector continues to grow and develop, Pakdemirli said, “Our cattle assets reached the highest level in the history of our Republic, reaching 18.2 million in 2020. Our sheep and goats assets increased by 12% in the last year to 54.1 million, reaching the highest figure in the last 30 years. In 2021, we made a breakthrough in sheep and goat farming and focused on efforts to increase animal presence. For this purpose, we will complete the determination of pastures, highlands and winter pastures. This year, we will realize Pasture Improvement and Management Projects in an area of 850 thousand decares.”
Source: Sabah / Translated by Irem Yildiz