Mayor of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Tunç Soyer, within the scope of the Pasture İzmir project, which was implemented with the vision of “Another Agriculture is Possible”, opened the gates of the pastures for the release of animals to the traditional plateau in Bergama Çamavlu Village. Stating that 6 million lira support was provided to the producer in two months with Mera İzmir, Soyer said, “We produce policies that will feed the small producer in the place where they were born.”
İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor, who prepared Turkey's first Shepherd Map and offered a purchase and sale guarantee to the producer, in order to develop and support rural livestock within the scope of the Mera İzmir project. Tunç Soyerparticipated in the traditional animal release festival in Çamavlu Village of Bergama.
Çamavlu Village producers started the animal release event to pasture with great enthusiasm this year. The President attended the ceremony organized by Çamavlu Rural Development Cooperative. Tunç Soyer and İzmir Village-Koop Union President Neptün Soyer and its board of directors, Dikili Mayor Adil Kırgöz, CHP Bergama District President Mehmet Ecevit Canbaz, İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Deputy Secretary General Ertuğrul Tugay, İZSU General Manager Aysel Özkan, Çamavlu Cooperative President Mustafa Kocataş and his wife Sakine Kocataş, İzmir Metropolitan Municipality council members, headmen, heads of cooperatives, representatives of non-governmental organizations, producers, local people and Çamavlu villagers attended.
The gates of the pasture have been opened for summer adventure
Meeting the intense interest of the producers in Çamavlu, Mayor Soyer inspected the 500-decare pasture area, which was first improved by the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality. President Soyer, who climbed to the top of the pasture and drank water from the natural spring, opened the door of the pastures together with the shepherds. A total of 12 thousand animals, including 4 thousand ovine and 16 bovine animals, set off from Çamavlu Village to Kuzguncuk plateau for their summer adventure. The animals that will graze on the pasture during the summer will eliminate the input cost of the producer such as water and feed, and will offer the opportunity to breathe in Turkey's difficult economic conditions.
The ancient shepherd culture is kept alive
President Soyer, who was herding herd of sheep and goats accompanied by producers, toured the workshops and traditional tents set up in the event area. With the village people around the shepherd's fire in the festival area sohbet Soyer listened to the demands of the producers. Soyer, who participated in the halay dance accompanied by folk songs, also gave report cards to the children.
“We heard the manufacturer's cry”
Speaking at the festival, Mayor Soyer stated that the Pasture İzmir project is essential for the producer to exist, and said, “35 percent of Turkey's land is pasture. But it is idle. Because wrong agricultural policies are being applied. Livestock is in a very difficult situation. Unfortunately, the citizen has given up on producing. He slaughters his animals because the milk does not cost money. We are heading towards a truly great impoverishment. We heard that cry too. This scream made us have to keep up with the demands of the manufacturer with our souls. We made an inventory of our shepherds engaged in animal husbandry in Izmir. We have determined how long each shepherd has been doing this job, how much milk he produces and where he sells it. We tried to find out how we could produce a solution with the data we obtained. We saw that it is possible to evaluate sheep's milk and goat's milk more. While sheep's milk was sold for 8 liras, we bought it for 11 liras. While goat milk was sold for 6 liras, we bought it for 10 liras. We made advance payments on these. We will try to catch up with all the shepherds. Because we are establishing a dairy plant in Bayındır. We will process the products of sheep and goat milk directly there, without blending.
“We produce policies that will feed the small producer where he was born”
President Soyer said, “We are trying to show that another agricultural policy is possible with all the work we do. We show it not only to the producer here, but also to all of Izmir, to all of Turkey. We want to show that such fertile lands, such a wealth of green spaces exist. Much better farming can be done. The name of the Aegean comes from the goat. Aegean actually means goat. In the past, this region was a region dominated by goats and intensively produced. Then we brought it to the point of extinction with the wrong agricultural and livestock policy choices. Now we are trying to revive it. On the one hand, on the basis of the fight against drought and on the other hand, we are producing policies that will feed the small producer in the place where they were born. The small producer must be able to earn enough to live on so that the balance between town and country can be maintained. Let's reduce our foreign dependency so that it is enough to feed the people living on fertile lands and food sovereignty will be preserved.
Mera İzmir struggles with both poverty and drought
Mayor of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Tunç SoyerMera İzmir, which was initiated with the vision of "Another Agriculture is Possible" and is the first comprehensive pasture livestock support project in Turkey, carries out its activities in order to support the shepherds and small producer cooperatives who feed their animals by grazing on the pasture. In the project, where shepherds who buy milk and meat are encouraged to use feeds produced from native and water-free heirloom seeds, both rural poverty and drought are combated.
6 million lira was paid to the producer
Signing a milk purchase agreement with 258 shepherds from Bergama and Kınık within the scope of the first phase of the “Mera İzmir” project, İzmir Metropolitan Municipality expanded the project by including the producers in Seferihisar, Urla, Güzelbahçe and Çeşme. Within the scope of the project, which reached a total of 535 shepherds, 22 tons of purchases were achieved per day. In the two-month period from the start of the project to April, 510 thousand liters of milk was purchased and a total of 6 million lira was paid to the producer.
Be the first to comment