Heads of Agriculture and Rural Services Departments of 11 Metropolitan Municipalities came together at the "Agriculture Workshop" hosted by Ankara Metropolitan Municipality. In the meeting, many topics such as support and criteria for the agriculture and food sector, infrastructure systems in investment and production, planning of joint agricultural projects were discussed, and future agricultural policies and solution proposals were also discussed.
Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, which continues to set an example for other municipalities with its rural development support moves, has now brought together the Heads of Agriculture and Rural Services Departments of 11 Metropolitan Municipalities in the "Agriculture Workshop" to exchange views on agricultural policies and discuss solution proposals.
In the workshop where Ankara Metropolitan Municipality Secretary General Reşit Serhat Taşkınsu made evaluations about the agricultural crises experienced throughout the country, Rural Services Department Head Ahmet Mekin Tüzün gave detailed information about the agricultural development supports of Ankara Metropolitan Municipality and the exemplary projects it has implemented.
AGRICULTURAL PROBLEMS ADDRESSED
In the workshop hosted by ABB at the Holiday Inn Hotel; Supports for the agriculture and food sector, establishment of an infrastructure system in investment and production, support criteria for production despite regional differences, planning of sample and common agricultural projects, integration work in public markets, artistic fairs and meetings to be held were discussed.
Emphasizing that they organized this workshop to identify solutions to the problems experienced in agricultural production at the provincial and national scale, Ahmet Mekin Tüzün, Head of Rural Services Department of ABB, made the following statements:
“Our goal is to identify solutions to the problems experienced in agricultural production at the provincial and country level. Metropolitans are currently supporting the agricultural sector in a very serious way. While making these supports, our goal is for the producer to maintain his life by staying in his village without breaking away from production. We have basic policies on this, how can we support this sector more effectively in a coordination that will bring these policies together? How can we keep our producer alive? We are searching and brainstorming this.”
CONTRACTED MANUFACTURING MODEL AND CENTRAL UNION GOAL IN BAŞKENT
Tüzün talked about the contract manufacturing model implemented by the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality in the Başkent.
“Our aim is to organize the producers and make them cooperative with this model. Ankara Metropolitan Municipality is really successful in this regard. Within the scope of Başkent Models, we buy and sell over 44 goods from 3 cooperatives and 700 unions. As Ankara Metropolitan, we have a proposal to gather all the cooperatives under one roof and to establish a central union, and thus to realize the goods purchases needed by the municipalities, whether in the market or in social assistance, through the cooperative central union and to spread the development to the base.”
Bursa Deputy Orhan Sarıbal, who spoke at the workshop held in an interactive environment in the form of questions and answers, said, “Municipalities ensure that the producer reaches sufficient and regular food. How can we make our agricultural supports and agricultural production potential more efficient? How can we make it public? How can we raise awareness of this on the national agenda? All of our municipalities distribute feed, they distribute fertilizer to our farmers in this difficult time, diesel is the most important issue of our day. How can we make this production and food chain more integrated, holistic, beneficial and efficient with our 11 municipalities? It is important to exchange views on all these,” he said.
JOINING FOR THE FUTURE OF AGRICULTURE
Drawing attention to the future of agriculture and the need to join forces against possible problems, the Heads of Agriculture and Rural Services Departments of 11 Metropolitan Municipalities expressed their views with the following words:
Buket Kallem (Head of Muğla Metropolitan Municipality Agricultural Services Department): “We are discussing what we can do for the agricultural future of our country. At the same time, we are planning in which province we will hold the next summit with all our municipalities. We want to set a method and a standard by trying to make decisions at the end of these meetings. In the Metropolitan Municipality law enacted after 2014, there was a statement that municipalities can provide all kinds of services and activities related to supporting agriculture and animal husbandry, but there was no infrastructure for this. We create this with these meetings.”
Şevket Meriç (Head of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Agricultural Services Department): “We are happy to hold the first meeting in İzmir, the second in Hatay, the third in Istanbul and the fourth in Ankara. We are happy to share the activities that support nature-friendly, small-scale producers and cooperatives with our other municipalities. We are also trying to apply the good examples they tell.”
Ahmet Atalık (Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Agricultural Services Department Head): “11 Metropolitan Municipalities are taking the steps of future Turkey's agricultural policies here by sharing their knowledge, opinions and system views for the future. Thanks to these meetings, we can decide how we will touch our farmers by establishing a stronger structure and seeing the problems in the field. We can take new steps towards the realization of the highest quality production with the minimum resources in the direction of supporting the production.”
Be the first to comment