Industry and Technology Minister Mustafa Varank and Agriculture and Forestry Minister Vahit Kirişçi got on a combine harvester and harvested Turkey's first domestic and national hybrid sunflower seeds, whose R&D and trial production were carried out entirely with domestic and national means.
Established with the cooperation of the public, private sector and universities, Trakya Tohum A.Ş. The first harvest of the oily strains SUN 2259 and SUN 2242 was carried out. A ceremony was held in Büyükkışla village of Şereflikoçhisar district of Ankara for the first harvest.
Speaking at the ceremony, Minister of Industry and Technology Varank said, “We succeeded in producing Turkey's first domestic and national hybrid sunflower seed. We started with sunflower and we will continue this with corn and different strategic products.” said.
Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Kirişçi stated that sunflower is a strategic and indispensable product and said, “It is a product that we also have a supply deficit. In order to encourage the cultivation of approximately 68 thousand decares of land that has not been planted for various reasons, we wish to expand the cultivation areas of sunflowers by giving seeds of which we subsidize 75 percent.” used his statements.
Industry and Technology Minister Mustafa Varank, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Vahit Kirişçi and Trakya Tohum A.Ş. made the first harvest of oil sunflower seeds developed by
AK Party Ankara Deputy Asuman Erdoğan, Thrace Development Agency General Secretary Mahmut Şahin, Ankara Development Agency General Secretary Cahit Çelik, Thrace Seed Growers Association President İbrahim Toruk, Turkey Seed Producers Union Vice President Selami Yazır, Şereflikoçhisar Mayor Memiş Çelik, Bala Belediye. Mayor Ahmet Buran and Evren Mayor Hüsamettin Ünsal attended.
THEY RIDE A COMBINED
After the ceremony, the two ministers passed by the combine harvester in the sunflower field. After the district mufti's prayer for the harvest to be fruitful, the two ministers got on the combine and made the first harvest.
In his speech at the ceremony, Minister Varank said:
LOCAL DEVELOPMENT
As the Ministry, we are the patrons of R&D and innovation in Turkey. We support R&D and innovation with our affiliated and related organizations. We, as the Ministry, carry out the agenda regarding the local development projects that our Ministry has put on its agenda with the Presidential Government System, namely, which projects can be developed and where can be invested while developing a city or a district.
NATIONAL HYBRID SEED
Today, we will harvest the results of a very important action that our Thrace Development Agency has supported since the beginning. There were native sunflower seeds in Turkey, but there was no national hybrid seed. We, together with our Trakya Development Agency, is a sector in which seed growing is widespread and we have important companies in that region. We brought together the companies in that region, the university, NGOs, and our ministry of agriculture, and we succeeded in producing Turkey's first domestic and national hybrid sunflower seed.
A RECORD WITH 200 KG
Here we carry out the activity of multiplying the seeds we produced. Trakya Seeds Inc. Established with the contributions of our Ministry of Agriculture, our Development Agency, companies in the region, associations and the university, Trakya Tohumculuk A.Ş. He came here and multiplied the seeds he first produced, today we will harvest them. Hopefully, the harvest we will do here will break a record in Turkey with 200 kilograms per decare.
WILL BE EXPORTED
As a ministry, we will continue to support such projects. Domestic seed growing has really developed in Turkey, but there is still a long way to go for domestic and national seeds. We started with sunflower and this will continue with corn and different strategic products. We made trial productions of this first domestic and national hybrid seed in Ankara, Russia and Sudan. Hopefully, the seeds obtained from here will be exported abroad. It will bring a serious added value to Turkey.
It turned out to be STRATEGIC
A medical doctor cultivating the field behind us. I said, 'What else did you plant this year?' I said, 'We planted wheat.' said. 'Are you satisfied?' I said, 'This year, our government gave us a lot of money, thank you.' said. Seeing how strategic agriculture and food is, especially in the world, which is shaken by the pandemic, wars, energy crisis and entered into turbulence, we have held agriculture more dear with the leadership of our president this year, and our farmers are satisfied with this work with the efforts of our minister.
WE WILL NOT EXPERIENCE
I come from Bala, I asked, our farmers are satisfied. We will continue to support R&D in agriculture as a ministry. It is not enough to do agriculture, the food industry is the industry that makes this work value-added, and we will continue to support the sectors together with our ministry of agriculture. We all watch it on the news. While Europe is thinking about how it will survive this winter, we will be able to get through the winter without any problems. I wish good luck to our domestic and national hybrid sunflower seeds. Thank you to those who contributed to the project.
MADE US HAPPY
In his speech, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Kirişçi pointed out the importance of sunflower oil, which is widely used in Turkey, and expressed that they are very happy to carry out seed activities related to sunflower. Noting that Turkey's self-sufficiency rate, which was 2002 percent in 31, has increased to 96 percent as of today, he said:
There is a 30-35 percent deficit
We still have a long way to go. We must complete this path quickly and continue on the road by getting above 100 percent. Sunflower is a very strategic and indispensable product in this sense, a product that we also have a supply deficit. We expect an increase of 5,6 percent compared to the previous year, but we know that we will still have a deficit of 30-35 percent. That's why we try to encourage our producers for this reason. In order to encourage the cultivation of approximately 68 thousand decares of land that has not been planted for various reasons, we wish to expand the sunflower cultivation areas by giving seeds, of which we subsidize 75 percent.
WE ARE AT YOUR SIDE
Explaining that the Agricultural Credit Cooperatives, beet cooperatives and unions related to oilseeds continue to make purchases related to sunflower, Minister Kirişçi said, “With the communiqué issued yesterday, we imposed 10 percent customs duty on imports. If this is not enough, there are other measures we will take. We will also put these into action. We will not allow our producer to be victimized in any way. My producer brothers, please do not panic, do not be alarmed. We are with you. Under the leadership of our President, we will continue to protect and support our farmers.” said.
SIGNATURE TO DOMESTIC AND NATIONAL SEED
After their speeches, two ministers entered the field and examined the products to be harvested. Ministers signed the harvest by putting them in a jar.
FOUNDED IN 2019
Trakya Seed Inc. It was established in 43 with the cooperation of 2019 institutions and organizations under the coordination of Trakya Development Agency. Trakya Tohum has partnerships with 32 seed companies, 10 commodity exchanges and Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University.
RESISTANT TO DISEASES
Trakya Tohum carried out R&D studies on sunflower breeding with the Trakya Agricultural Research Institute. As a result of these studies, oil sunflower seeds called SUN 2259 CL and SUN 2242 CL were produced with domestic and national resources. These seeds were first used in trial production in Sudan, as well as in Tekirdağ, Edirne, Kırklareli and Şereflikoçhisar district of Ankara. It was observed that the resistance of domestic and national seeds against diseases was higher than other species.
200 TONS OF SEED WILL BE OBTAINED
In trial productions in Şereflikoçhisar, SUN 2259 was planted on 200 decares and SUN 2242 was planted on 750 decares. It is expected that approximately 200 tons of seed product will be obtained as a result of sowing. Seeds with a market value of approximately 54 million TL are planned to be exported to countries where demonstration studies have been completed, such as Russia and Sudan, as well as Bulgaria and Romania.
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