Local Turkiye

Turkey will end this year with significant growth in agriculture

Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli said, “Turkey has shown a growth of 0.5% in the first three quarters, agriculture grew 5.3%, making a significant contribution to our economy. I hope we will end this year with significant growth in agriculture. “

Pakdemirli attended the 3rd Agriculture Forestry Council Action Plans 1st Year Evaluation Meeting and shared the action plans implemented this year with the public.

Stating that the 3rd council stood out from the others in terms of participation, content, and monitoring of the results, Pakdemirli reminded that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the result document of the Agriculture and Forestry Council to the public on 21 November 2019.

Pakdemirli said that after the Covid-19 epidemic started, they implemented 101 measures from agricultural support payments to the postponement of loan interests, from strict food controls to the opening of public lands to production, and added:

“Despite the pandemic, our industry showed growth in all quarters with the opportunities provided by the Presidential Government System. Especially in 2020, there is an increasing momentum of growth every quarter. Growth, which was 2.1% in the first quarter and 4.2% in the second quarter, reached 6.2% in the third quarter. While Turkey has shown a growth of 0.5% in the first three quarters, agriculture grew 5.3%, making a significant contribution to our economy. I hope we will end this year with significant growth in agriculture.”

Pakdemirli said that 9-month agricultural yield increased 20% compared to the same period of the previous year, and exports of agricultural and food products increased by 5% in 10 months of the year compared to the same period of the previous year.

“Our herbal production broke previous record in Turkey”

Minister Pakdemirli said, “Our plant production in 2020 reached 124 million tons with an increase of 7 million tons compared to 2019, breaking the record in the history of Turkey.”

Pointing out that in the first 6 months of the year in animal production, the cattle stock increased to 18.6 million cattle with an increase of 800 thousand compared to the previous year, and said, “Our small cattle assets increased by 6.6 million small cattle, reaching 55.1 million. With an increase of 6.6 million in sheep and goats, we achieved the highest increase over the last 80 years on a yearly basis.”

“We will pay ₺24 billion of agricultural support to our farmers in 2021”

Noting that they held the Agriculture Forest Council with the largest participation, Pakdemirli continued as follows:

“We meticulously evaluated the 50 thousand opinions we received on the website. We prepared our 5-year plan for the sustainability of agriculture, the future of food, the future of our forests and the future of water, we prepared a road map that will shed light for 25 years. Within the scope of the council, we held more than 1000 meetings in 81 provinces and received the views of 10 thousand stakeholders. We evaluated the views of producers, academicians, public, NGO and private sector participants in 21 working groups and created detailed reports.”

Pakdemirli also gave information about the activities and investments carried out this year within the scope of the Council Action Plan.

Pakdemirli stated that they increased the amount of agricultural support by 37% annually to ₺22 billion in order to ensure the security of agricultural production and supply, and that they provided ₺7.4 billion support to livestock.

He said that they will pay a total of ₺24 billion of agricultural support to farmers in 2021.

“800 thousand people promised to protect their food”

Pakdemirli stated that the number of members in the Digital Agriculture Market (DITAP), which was launched 8 months ago, exceeded 160 thousand users and the turnover exceeded ₺150 million.

Pakdemirli said that, within the scope of the “Protect Your Food, Protect Your Table” campaign, those who promised not to waste food with the slogan “Promise” digitally gave their signature, and stated that approximately 800 thousand people have promised so far and a world record has been broken in this field.

He stated that they started summer planting in 350 thousand deciares in 24 provinces with a 75% seed grant within the scope of the protocol signed with the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization in order to bring the Public lands into production and that they have regained a total of 1 million deciares of land.

“This year, we provided ₺1.6 billion premium support and ₺1.2 billion damage compensation to our farmers in the scope of TARSIM.” Pakdemirli stated that they have included the excessive heat damage in citrus to TARSIM since 2021.

Referring to the studies on seed production, Pakdemirli noted that 96% of the certified seeds used domestically today are local and the ratio of exports to imports in seeds has increased from 31% to 86% in the last 18 years.

Stating that they aim to increase the production of fiber plants, especially hemp, Pakdemirli said, “In 2020, we planted hemp for seeds, fiber, and stem on an area of 4 thousand 694 decares. We increased our hemp production 7 times to 287 tons. We reduced hemp seed imports by 62% from 299 tons to 114 tons.”

Pointing out that they included apricots in the scope of intervention procurement for the first time in the history of Turkey, Pakdemirli said that the licensed warehouse with a capacity of 1.7 million tons was also put into operation this year and that it was supported with ₺69 million within the scope of licensed warehousing activities.

“133 products received geographical indication registrations”

Pakdemirli stated that this year, they made economic investments in the field of rural development within the scope of the supports of the European Union (EU), IPARD Programme, Expert Hands in Rural Development, and ORKOY, they provided ₺1.1 billion to 16,629 projects. He said that they made grant payments of ₺137 million to 545 young and women investors within the scope of rural development supports.

Pakdemirli pointed out that settlements that were converted from village or town municipalities to neighborhoods with the legal arrangement could turn into rural neighborhoods and thus benefit from the advantages of rural areas, he continued as follows:

“These places, buildings, lands used for agricultural production, and buildings used as residences will be exempt from real estate tax. Building construction fees for agricultural and other buildings will not be collected. 50% discount will be applied. The fee for drinking and utility water will be determined in a way that the lowest tariff will not exceed 50% for workplaces and 25% for residences.” he spoke.

Pakdemirli stated that they have completed the Nature Tourism Mobile Application Project, which will be opened to international and domestic use to make Turkey an international brand in nature tourism. He said that within the scope of the studies, they prepared the eco-tourism plans of Artvin, Kahramanmaras, Amasya, Kutahya, and Istanbul.

Pakdemirli informed that 133 more products were registered as geographical indications this year within the scope of branding infrastructure works in agriculture and forestry products, “We are adding Aydin chestnut and Milas olive oil to our EU geographical indication registrations in 2020, next to Gaziantep baklava, Aydin fig, Malatya apricot, increasing our EU geographical indication to 5. We prepared the draft regulation on the inspection of geographical indications and traditional products. We prepared the trademark regulation and started the legal process.”

Pakdemirli stated that they expect the production amount of aquaculture with the support to reach 400 thousand tons this year:

“We increased the number of aquaculture areas with carrying capacity in seas and inland waters from 28 to 32. We made 8.2 million fisheries in our water resources. We are establishing the first specialized agricultural aquaculture industry zone of our country and Europe in Adana, Karatas. This OIZ, with 215 pools, processing facilities, will have advanced technology technocity to develop new types and will employ 3 thousand people.”

Drawing attention to the fact that within the scope of the protection of agricultural lands, they prevent the division of the lands with hobby gardens he said, “We increased the number of savannahs, which were declared protected areas in 2020, from 264 to 315. We reached the 300 savannahs aim we set for 2023 in 2020. In 2020, we completed the consolidation works of approximately 545 thousand hectares.”

₺11 billion investment for water and irrigation in rural areas

Pakdemirli, who stated that they made an investment of ₺11 billion this year in order to prevent water and irrigation problems in the rural areas, gave the following information:

“15 dams, 38 ponds, 6 HEPPs, 150 flood protection facilities, 18 drinking water and wastewater, 75 irrigation facilities were put into operation. We designed 2021 as a breakthrough year in water and irrigation investments. In 2021, 51 dams and 39 ponds and dams will be completed and the number of landfills will reach 1617, the number of projects completed in the land consolidation works will reach 307, and the consolidated area will reach 6 million hectares.

The number of drinking water facilities will reach 382 and the amount of drinking water to be supplied will be 4.8 billion cubic meters per year. 137 more flood facilities will be completed and the number of facilities will be 10 thousand 244. The completed irrigation facility will reach 3 thousand 313 and the area opened to irrigation will reach 6.9 million hectares. We prepared the ‘Water Law Draft’, which includes regulations for the integrated management, protection, improvement, sectoral and individual allocation of our country’s water resources, and we established the National Water Information System.”

Pakdemirli stated that they established a meteorological observation station in Antarctica and started the integration study of the meteorological data of the domestic automobile TOGG, “By using meteorological data, yield estimation studies have been started for citrus fruits, nuts and grapes in plant production.”

Stating that the forest assets were increased from 22.6 million hectares to 22.9 million hectares, Pakdemirli said, “Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) started to be used for the first time in combating forest fires in both Europe and Turkey. We aim to increase the number of UAVs to 4 in 2021. New generation environmental and national fire extinguishing chemicals started to be used. This year, we implemented the Yangin-CELL Communication System and the Navigation Tracking System Digital System for fast communication and tracking.”

Pakdemirli stated that non-wood forest products foreign trade has now started to increase and their year-end targets are 1 billion dollars foreign trade surplus.

“20 electric tractors are about to be completed”

Referring to studies on R&D and use of technology in agriculture, Pakdemirli said, “We started the production of our first domestic and national electric tractor. 20 of this tractor with 105 horsepower are about to be produced. In addition, the Electrical Garden Tractor Prototype Development Project with 65 horsepower, the autonomous spraying robot and the variable drug rate application project work, continues in cooperation with our Ministry and the university. A trial study of the smart earring application has been started on 20 thousand animals.”

Pakdemirli pointed out that with the software integration with the General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre, they reduced the 5-day processing time in the transfer of agricultural land to less than 24 hours.

Emphasizing that they have taken an important step to establish the digital value chain “from seed to table” with the Digital Agriculture Market application, Pakdemirli said, “We recorded the whole process from seed to table. Thus, we established the balance of production, consumption, price, export and import. We contribute to keeping the production-consumption balance and price fluctuations under control by monitoring price movements with the product and price monitoring system. The development area of the agricultural sector in the coming period is the Agriculture 4.0 process, which includes artificial intelligence, agricultural technologies and digitalization. For Turkey to stand out in agriculture it will be possible by producing such and similar technologies.

Pakdemirli stated that, despite the new type of coronavirus epidemic this year, they implemented their actions and activities without slowing down:

“We have successfully completed the promises we made and the work we planned. In 2021, our priority will be to protect the producer and watch over the consumer. In 2021, we will continue to grow and support our sector with agriculture, forestry, and irrigation investments in addition to agricultural supports and intervention purchases. We will implement all the actions we have determined within the scope of the Agriculture Forestry Council one by one for the years 2021, 2022 and 2023 as in 2020, and we will further strengthen our agricultural forest infrastructure.”

Source: AA / Translated by Bazaar Times Team

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