The Capital Ankara Development Project (BAKAP), implemented by Ankara Metropolitan Mayor Mansur Yavaş, saying, “My biggest dream is to enrich the local producers from Ankara”, started to develop urban agriculture. Continuing to support the domestic producers economically with its rural development support programs, the Metropolitan Municipality aims to revive the city's economy with the 'Agriculture Campus' model established on its land located on an area of 2 decares in Gölbaşı Karaoğlan District. The Rural Services Department, which distributes the products grown on this land free of charge to local producers and families receiving social assistance, will now distribute the harvested silage corn to small family businesses engaged in animal husbandry.
The Metropolitan Municipality continues to make local producers smile with its rural development projects that improve the capital's agriculture and revitalize the city's economy.
The Capital Ankara Development Project (BAKAP), implemented by the Metropolitan Mayor Mansur Yavaş, who continues to stand by the farmers of the Capital city with the words “My biggest dream is to enrich the local producers from Ankara”, has started to bear fruit.
Providing support to local producers in many areas from seeds to fertilizers, the Metropolitan Municipality both produces various products and distributes the products it grows to domestic producers and families receiving social assistance, free of charge, in the agriculture campus established on an area of 2 decares in Gölbaşı Karaoğlan District. Thanks to the Gölbaşı Karaoğlan Agriculture Campus, which is an important pillar of the BAKAP Project, which provides economic support to the farmers in the capital city, the city's economy is reviving day by day.
THE PROJECT TO STRENGTHEN THE CAPITAL AGRICULTURE
The Rural Services Department aims to strengthen the capital's agriculture by preparing new support programs for domestic producers with BAKAP.
Explaining the importance of the BAKAP Project by saying, “We are building Turkey's largest agricultural campus in terms of municipalities,” Ahmet Mekin Tüzün, Head of Rural Services, stated that they will benefit from the agricultural lands belonging to the municipality for multiple purposes and made the following statements:
“We are establishing an Agricultural Academy for a training center where we will train the producers from Ankara. We will give the trainings in Gölbaşı Karaoğlan. We will also have short courses. Within this, we are establishing a Nature and Agriculture Camp. Here, we will have a unit to make our children love agriculture and to explain nature and life in nature. We will also have 5 laboratories. Our aim is to look at the producer's irrigation water, soil and residue.”
INCENTIVE TO CERTIFIED PRODUCTION
Emphasizing that they plan to direct the producers from Ankara to certified production, Tüzün said, “For this reason, being able to detect the residues in the products produced by the producers will be the basis for obtaining good agriculture and organic agriculture certificates. We aim to be able to provide analysis reports or residue reports that we will use in exports from Ankara to abroad," he said.
Stating that they will establish a laboratory with international validity and accreditation, Tuzun said, “We will have greenhouse zones here. In these greenhouses, we will obtain the production from both seeds and steel and from our tissue culture laboratory that we will establish. Another laboratory will be medicinal and aromatic plants. You know, there is a serious shift in these plants with the pandemic. Ankara's ecology is also very suitable for this. Apart from these, we have a production area. We will have productions both under the cover and in the open field.”
FROM YOGA CENTER TO NATURAL LIFE AREA, MANAGEMENT FROM CYCLE ROUTE
Emphasizing that they will also build an agricultural recreation center in Gölbaşı Karaoğlan Agriculture Campus, Tüzün explained that the residents of the Capital can spend time with their families with the following words:
“We will have separate events for all of our citizens who come here with their families. From playgrounds for children, gardens where they can quickly plant, 12,5 kilometers of walking track, 8 kilometers of bicycle track, an area where they can ride horses (manege), natural habitat with animals unique to Ankara, our bungalows, ponds, rainwater pond will be our yoga center.”
FROM FRUIT AND VEGETABLES TO SAFFRON PRODUCTION
Stating that they will continue to support domestic producers as the Metropolitan Municipality, Tüzün also drew attention to the fact that they produce products with high added value and announced that they started the rural development move in the Capital:
“As Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, we were giving food parcels to those in need. Here, we produced 150 decares of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and beans to meet the fresh vegetables needed by these families. We planted potatoes and we deliver the potatoes to those in need through the Social Services Department. Apart from that, we have different product trials. Another sunflower experiment. Now we have divided them into packages of 250 grams and give them as gifts to those who visit us. One of our most interesting works was the drip irrigation system in paddy rice. A service that provides 70 percent water savings. There is a forage plant used in livestock, we have grown it. Currently, our saffron production continues. Our goal is to continue to reproduce next year. We found non-GMO soy and we grew it as logs. We have done our harvest. We will expand it within the scope of contracted production. We planted musk consisting of different forage plants in 9 plots. We made mixtures with high calorie and nutritional value especially for livestock and dairy animals, baled them, prepared brochures about them and distributed them. We planted 12 thousand 100 fruit trees. We also tell our producers that they can be grown in 21 different varieties and in this ecology. We irrigate our entire field with a closed system. We use drip irrigation system and drum irrigation system, we use water very carefully, especially in this period of drought, we explain the value of water to our guests. We showed on the field the benefits of drip irrigation or how to do it with drum irrigation if they are going to irrigate very large areas. We established our wood workshop, started the construction of our workers' dining hall and changing rooms. At the moment, we have started to open walking and cycling paths. We will develop a value-added center for Ankara, which will be Turkey's largest campus. We will build a center here that can do R&D on both production and education.”
The Metropolitan Municipality, which relieves the economy of domestic producers with the support it provides in line with the understanding of social municipality, will distribute the silage corn grown in Gölbaşı Karaoğlan Agriculture Campus free of charge to small family businesses dealing with animal husbandry after the harvest is completed.
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