Speaking at an Agriculture Summit, Antalya mayor Menderes Turel highlighted the importance of local agricultural producers: “The municipality of Antalya has become one of the most important partners of the agricultural sector since 2014. This was only possible through the legislation of municipality law. The municipality does not just work in building roads and providing water. We are investing a lot into our villages. We are providing them electricity in their irrigation system free of charge. Annually that is 5 megawatts of electricity used free of charge. In total 7,249 growers use this electricity.
We are also building cold storage facilities and fruit and vegetable markets. We merged some of the markets to make them more efficient. We are building some new market places as well. The budget for agricultural infrastructure increased tenfold since 2013.
Our growers are making innovations in seed and seedling production. There are also new innovations in tomatoes and other fruit and vegetable products. Nobody would have believed us 10 years ago if we had told then that Antalya seed growers will sell seeds to other countries, but it has become a reality now, and that shows how much we have developed.
One important issue we need to overcome is misinformation about greenhouse products. The people in Turkey have the wrong impression about greenhouse products and believe it is not healthy, which could not be further from truth. We need to explain to them that greenhouse production is better controlled and more healthy. This kind of misinformation hurts the agriculture industry.
Another important issue for us is to lower the gap between the grower price and retail price of the products, to make sure that growers earn enough money. Also, we need to incentivize young people to keep them in agricultural production. Our government already has some ongoing project to serve this purpose, such as the grant program for young growers. I believe better days are on the horizon. We also need to focus more on the modernization of the greenhouses and utilization of digital technologies, and our growers can make these investments through agricultural loans by the banks.”
One important issue we need to overcome is misinformation about greenhouse products. The people in Turkey have the wrong impression about greenhouse products and believe it is not healthy, which could not be further from truth. We need to explain to them that greenhouse production is better controlled and more healthy. This kind of misinformation hurts the agriculture industry.
Another important issue for us is to lower the gap between the grower price and retail price of the products, to make sure that growers earn enough money. Also, we need to incentivize young people to keep them in agricultural production. Our government already has some ongoing project to serve this purpose, such as the grant program for young growers. I believe better days are on the horizon. We also need to focus more on the modernization of the greenhouses and utilization of digital technologies, and our growers can make these investments through agricultural loans by the banks.”
Source: Hurriyet