Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality has implemented a new project in the Natural Production Garden, the address of organic production, located next to the Anatolian Wonderland.
Contributing to the healthy nutrition of Kayseri residents with organic foods, the Metropolitan Municipality opened the Seed Bank and Agricultural Equipment Area it established to visitors.
Natural Products Garden Responsible, Agricultural Engineer Abdurrahman Özcan, said in his statement on the subject: “The area we are in is an area where organic agriculture is carried out by our Metropolitan Municipality. Our producers produce without using pesticides, fertilizers or chemicals. We also have a market on Saturdays, but our season is closed now. "All of our products that can grow in Kayseri are grown in this garden," he said.
Stating that they aim to exhibit the agricultural tools used in the past, Özcan said, “This is an area we opened to show what we have come to today, from the agricultural tools that were made with animal or human labor in the past. There are many old agricultural tools inside. "We are waiting for all our citizens," he said.
Noting that they have produced a project to multiply non-genetically modified seeds and distribute them to citizens, Özcan said, “We also created a Seed Bank, which we divided into two: heirloom seeds that can grow in Kayseri and local seeds. In the seed bank, we will multiply local non-genetically modified seeds that can grow in Kayseri and first exhibit them in the museum, then we will multiply these seeds in our areas here and distribute them to our citizens. "We have such a project," he said.
Within the scope of the project, a Seed Bank was established in Kayseri and throughout the country to create an example where ancestral seeds, cultivated plants, wild relatives and endemic plants are obtained from nature, farmers or research projects and preserved for the protection of genetic diversity. The main purpose of the project was to show that the ancestral seeds unique to Kayseri should be protected and disseminated.
On the other hand, Agricultural Equipment Area studies were carried out in order to convey the historical development of agriculture to future generations and to raise the awareness of farmers, to see where we have come in agriculture with the materials displayed, and to inform the public about the history of agriculture, its heritage and its impact on society. Agricultural tools collected from villages in Kayseri were brought to the Natural Production Garden, which is directly related to this work, to be repaired and exhibited. Agricultural practices such as tillage, harvest and post-harvest practices in the region were exhibited, and agricultural tools used at that time, such as plows, oxcarts, hand mills, heifers and rakes, were exhibited in the Natural Production Garden and opened to visitors.
