Atalık Karakılçık Wheat Increases From One Handful To 11 Thousand Acres

Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, which has reactivated the production of ancestral black seed wheat in Izmir, has started the 2023 season seed distribution from Ödemiş. With the guarantee of purchase from the producer, the seeds of black cumin wheat, which were planted on 4 thousand acres last year, will meet the soil on a total of 11 thousand decares in Manisa, Burdur and Denizli, especially in İzmir, this season.

Mayor of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Tunç SoyerWithin the scope of 'Another Agriculture is Possible' vision, heirloom black cumin wheat continues to meet with the fertile lands of İzmir. Metropolitan Municipality 2023 season seed distribution was started in Ödemiş. Ödemiş Mayor Mehmet Eriş, İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Agricultural Services Department Head Şevket Meriç, İzTarım A.Ş. General Manager Murat Onkardeşler, council members, headmen, cooperative members and many farmers attended. During the ceremony, 28 kilograms of black pepper seeds were given to 8 producers in Ödemiş.

“We are expanding the project”

Speaking at the ceremony, Head of Agricultural Services Department Şevket Meriç said, “The climate crisis is pushing production conditions day by day. We have to leave the lands we own to the next generations as strong and healthy as possible. There is only one method to this. We have to produce with the local seeds and local animal breeds that nature has given us, and the local opportunities that the region offers us. We set out with a handful of black pepper seeds in Seferihisar in 2009 and we are progressing by expanding the project. I would like to thank everyone who contributed,” he said.

“A very exciting figure for atalik seeds”

IzTarm A.S. General Manager Murat Onkardeşler, on the other hand, stated that they are excited to distribute the seeds of karakılçık wheat to the producer this year, as they were last year, and said, “This production season, we are reaching 11 thousand decares of land in İzmir and its districts. This is a very exciting figure in terms of heirloom seeds. The world produces enough food to feed 12 billion people every day. But there are 8 billion people in the world. In other words, 4 billion dollars of food is wasted. It was said to us that you can't get enough of ancestral seeds for years, you can get enough of hybrid seeds. But no one in the world has found a solution to hunger. The pandemic process also showed us how important our own seeds are. We're doing a really valuable job here today. The trust shown by the people of Ödemiş is very important to us. Based on the figures we received this year alone, we will have provided 29 million support to our 1 producers. When we calculate the next year with the rising inflation, this figure will increase even more,” he said.

“We will walk this road with our farmer”

Ödemiş Mayor Mehmet Eriş, who stated that as Ödemiş Municipality, will continue to act together with the producers after the planting process of the products, said: “We see a spark of the torch lit by our Bronze Mayor years ago here. We planted last year and saw how right an investment it was. As long as we don't take care of our ancestral seeds, someone fills this void. It's the end of October and it's 28 degrees. If we look at the soil, it definitely gives more. We also wholeheartedly support the work of IzTarm. Our agricultural services directorate will be with the producer in every field planted.”

Thanks to Tunç President

Producers who buy the seeds of Atalik are satisfied with their situation. Emine Ceylan said, “I would like to thank our Bronze President. As producers, we need to contribute. Dry farming is very important. At least, it is necessary to use the water of our plain less. It is important that we plant the seeds of ancestry,” he said.

"Let's multiply these seeds together"

Cahit Dinç said, “I did all kinds of agriculture, I found this to be the most affordable. You will get rid of irrigation, energy, fertilizer, medicine. These are important inputs. The costs are increasing every day. Let's multiply these seeds together," he said.
Cahit Altuğ also emphasized that there should be as many seeds as possible in order to produce more ancestral karakılçık wheat and to plant more seeds, saying, “Let's not import from Russia from Ukraine, let these crops grow on our own lands. Wrong agricultural policies have brought us to this point. We hope to grow even more in the coming years.”

Delivered to the consumer with the İzmirli brand

Izmir Metropolitan Municipality ensured that 2022 tons of ancestral black seed and sedge rye seeds were planted on 80 thousand acres in the 4 season. In the 2022 harvest, 350 tons of products were obtained and approximately 4 million liras of support was provided to the farmers, whose purchase guarantee was given. Some of the harvested seeds are reserved for the 11 production season to be planted on 2023 thousand acres. Some of them were ground in stone mills and delivered to consumers as karakılçık flour and pasta under the İzmir brand.

Spreading from the plains of Izmir to Turkey

Izmir Metropolitan Municipality's karakılçık project has started to give hope to the farmers in the surrounding provinces by leaving the plains of the city. This year, the seeds of karakılçık wheat will be planted in Denizli, Burdur and Manisa. In addition to Karakılçık wheat, seed support activities for chickpeas and dry beans will also continue.