📩 21/09/2023 11:35
Metropolitan Mayor Mansur Yavaş met with representatives of Ankara's local press at BAKAP, Turkey's largest agricultural campus and recreation area. Providing detailed information to the press about BAKAP Agricultural Campus and Recreation Area, Yavaş said, “An agricultural academy will be established here and agricultural studies will be carried out. Depending on the season, we will invite people from Ankara to eat mulberries here. "Children will come and pick the apples from the tree," he said.
Ankara Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Mansur Yavaş hosted local press members and answered their questions at the recently opened BAKAP Agriculture Campus and Recreation Area.
Members of the local press showed great interest in Yavaş, who also gave information about the projects of the Metropolitan Municipality in the program.
YAVAŞ: “WE HAVE BEEN OBTAINING PRODUCTS FROM HERE FOR 3 YEARS”
ABB President Mansur Yavaş started his speech by giving information about the ongoing work of Ankara Metropolitan Municipality; He made statements about the Ulus Square, Hıdırlıktepe Recreation Area, Anafartalar Bazaar, Zafer Bazaar and Square projects.
Providing information about BAKAP, which was recently opened, Yavaş said, “This place was expropriated from the villagers in previous years and declared an urban transformation area. 15-20 thousand houses will be built here. We gave up and decided to turn this place into agricultural recreation, thinking that the city needed such an area. Even though it seems 25 kilometers away from the city right now, it will remain within the city the day after tomorrow. We do not find it right to open new development areas and production areas such as fields. Therefore, we made this place an agricultural recreation area. We have been obtaining products from here for 3 years. We make corn silage and distribute it to small family businesses all over Ankara. We also sent it to Kahramanmaraş. Animal feed is distributed to almost all villages in Ankara. "We first grew vegetables here," he said.
“WE WILL BRING AGRICULTURE AND CHILDREN TOGETHER”
Yavaş continued his statements with the following words:
“There are very large lands between Gölbaşı and Bala. But people do not return to agriculture because they quit agriculture. Our Rural Services Department Head turned an area of 60 thousand square meters into irrigated agriculture. Two thousand hollows were left in the mountains to support livestock. It was a great need. An agricultural academy will be established here and agricultural studies will be carried out. There are bungalow houses at the back of the project. They will come and stay here as a family, they will see how planting is done, and we will invite the people of Ankara to eat mulberries here depending on the season. Children will come and pick the apples from the tree. In fact, there was a statement made by our Rural Services Department Head that I liked very much; 'Children will learn that tomatoes do not grow in grocery stores'. It really is. When the new generation encounters new technology in such a short time, they do not know the things we all expected to know. Therefore, we will bring agriculture and children together here.”
Providing information about the trees in the area one by one, Yavaş said, “There are 28 caravan parks at the back and a tent camping area of 18 thousand square meters. We have 12 sports facilities. There are 17 thousand 500 fruit trees. We planted all kinds of fruits. There are 2 million 200 thousand landscape plants. There is 160 thousand square meters of grass area. There is a landscaping area of 10 thousand square meters. There are three ecological lakes. There is a lavender garden of 55 thousand square meters. There is barley, wheat and straw bale production on 200 decares. There is also silage corn production on 130 decares. There are alfalfa bales in an area of 75 thousand square meters. There is black cumin production on 40 decares. There is vegetable production on 40 decares. There are 20 species of medicinal and aromatic plants produced in 75 decares. An area with the highest number of medicinal and aromatic plants in Turkey. There is a local wheat seed production area on 10 decares. There is 5 decares of oil sunflower area, 5 decares for the production of products specific to Ankara, 5 decares for the production of 35 types of heirloom seeds, 15 decares for vetch production, and 30 square meters of vertical soilless agriculture area. We attach great importance to this. Let them take lessons here, let them come and see the sites, because retirees will have to deal with these things a lot. They can even grow one in a tanker. "3 and a half million square meters is a very large area," he said.
“SMALL FAMILY FARMS SURVIVE AGRICULTURE IN TURKEY”
Explaining his incentives for rural development, Yavaş continued his speech as follows:
“Small family farms actually keep agriculture alive in Turkey... An aunt of ours living in the village raises 2-3 animals and sends her children to school. Now we say; 'let the big companies do these'. Big companies do these things by industrializing, right down to food. There will also be health problems in the future. Turkey must definitely switch to technology and produce value-added products, but we think it is wrong to cut off agriculture suddenly. In a time when there is both a climate crisis and wars, people need to be returned to agriculture, or at least the families currently engaged in agriculture need to continue this agriculture. We had great incentives in this direction. We are currently monitoring the fields of 42 thousand farmers via satellite. We let them know if there are insects, if they are not growing, or if there is a problem. At the same time, when we distribute seeds, we see from the satellite whether the field has been planted or not. There are two very large greenhouses in Beypazarı. We distribute these greenhouses as seedlings to all farmers in Ankara. We also sent large amounts to Kahramanmaraş. Therefore, we will continue the work that directs people to production in a more technical way here.”