WE WILL PROSPER WITH AGRICULTURE, WE WILL TAKE CARE OF OUR WATER

Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ayşe Ünlüce, in her statement on May 14 World Farmers Day, drew attention to the strategic importance of agriculture and emphasized the support they provide to agricultural development as the Metropolitan Municipality. Mayor Ünlüce, who particularly touched on the importance of dry farming against the climate crisis, said, In the last year, we have carried out dry farming on an area of 725 thousand square meters, both protecting our water, which is the guarantee of our future, and emphasizing the importance of dry farming. We will develop with agriculture; we will take care of our water.

Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ayşe Ünlüce, drawing attention to the fact that environmentally friendly agricultural methods have gained importance with global warming and the decrease in water resources, stated that they both support producers and popularize sustainable agricultural practices with the dry farming projects they carry out as the Metropolitan Municipality.

Within the scope of the studies carried out under the leadership of Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality Agricultural Services Department, dry farming method was applied on a total area of 725 thousand square meters. In this context, durum wheat was planted on 345 thousand square meters of land belonging to the Metropolitan Municipality, chickpeas were planted on 105 thousand square meters of land in Karahüyük Neighborhood, and oat, Hungarian vetch and common vetch were planted on 100 thousand square meters of land in Yusuflar Neighborhood and 175 thousand square meters of land in Türkmentokat Neighborhood in order to provide feed support to producers engaged in animal husbandry. On the other hand, the Harvest support for small farmers, which started in 2022 to encourage dry farming, was given only to farmers who plant grain in all districts of Eskişehir.

In order to increase the efficiency of dry farming, liquid fertilizer support, which improves the soil structure, was given to a total of 406 farmers in Odunpazarı, Tepebaşı and Han districts. These fertilizers, which have high organic matter content, increase the water retention capacity and permeability of the soil and support plant health. Thus, the sustainability of dry farming is ensured.

Mayor Ünlüce drew attention to the importance of environmentally friendly production models that are sensitive to the climate crisis, saying, Dry farming, which has low input costs and does not require irrigation infrastructure, is of great importance both environmentally and economically. We will continue to support our producers on this path.