The Yalova Atalık Seed Exchange Festival, organized in collaboration with the Yalova Municipality and the Yalova Atalık Seed Exchange Club, was held at the Raif Dinçkök Cultural Center with a large turnout. The event, organized with the aim of protecting local seeds, encouraging sustainable agriculture and spreading nature-friendly lifestyles, brought together farmers, academics, nature lovers and many citizens. The festival aims to draw attention to the importance of local seeds and leave a healthy legacy for future generations.
“Yalova’s Ancestral Seed Box” Introduced
The opening ceremony of the festival began with meaningful speeches by Yalova Mayor Mehmet Gürel and Yalova Atalık Seed Exchange Club founder Vicdan Karabudak. The “Yalova Atalık Seed Bank” project, which is an important step for the preservation of Yalova’s local seeds and their transfer to future generations, was also introduced at the opening. This project is considered an important initiative that will allow the systematic collection, storage and transfer of ancestral seeds in the region to future generations.
President Gürel: “Our Aim is to Carry the Heritage to the Future”
Speaking at the opening, Mayor Mehmet Gürel emphasized the importance of the event and said, “The event we are holding here today is quite important and meaningful. The collection of our ancestral seeds, the ability of people to share and spread these seeds with each other, the training and awareness-raising in the process, in other words, not only protecting a heritage but also transferring it to future generations, but also preserving our traditions and carrying it from family to family, from individual to individual, from producer to producer, from consumer to consumer.” Mayor Gürel stated that they held the event together with the Yalova Atalık Seed Exchange Club for the first time this year, thanked the club for their contributions and said that he believed that the event would turn into a more professional, rich-content and colorful festival in the coming years. Emphasizing that this festival was an important step in line with the goal of supporting urban agriculture and taking pioneering steps by the Agriculture Directorate established within the Yalova Municipality last year, Mayor Gürel expressed his hope that the event would grow and become a tradition and thanked everyone who contributed.
Protocol and Civil Society Representatives Cut the Opening Ribbon
Following the speeches, Yalova Mayor Mehmet Gürel said, Kadıköy Mayor Yılmaz Tavşan, Yalova Provincial Gendarmerie Commander Gendarmerie Colonel Ercan Altın, City Council President Kenan Engin and many association chairmen and representatives of civil society organizations officially started the event by cutting the opening ribbon. After the opening, protocol members and guests visited the stands and received information about local seeds and sustainable agricultural practices.
The Festival Included Colorful Activities and Informative Talks
The Yalova Atalık Seed Exchange Festival was not limited to just the seed exchange event, but also hosted various cultural and informative events. Throughout the festival, stand visits, local folk dance shows and concerts provided enjoyable moments for participants. In addition, talks and workshops with the participation of experts in the field informed participants about sustainable agriculture and the importance of local seeds. In the Seed Exchange section, citizens made an important contribution to traditional agricultural values by exchanging local seeds they grew with other participants. This exchange event is of great importance in terms of preserving and spreading local seed diversity.
Experts Emphasize Future Agriculture and Importance of Local Seeds
In the talks organized as part of the event, Non-Toxic Agriculture Expert Önder Mergan and Healthy Life Expert Volkan Dündar shared important information under the title of “Future Agriculture and the Importance of Local Seeds”. The experts drew attention to the critical importance of local seeds for agricultural independence and emphasized that local seeds provide an alternative against the negative effects of industrial agriculture. In the session titled “Sustainable Agriculture Practices”, Gülay Beşirli and Murat Kıvılcım provided detailed information to the participants about seed diversity, natural farming methods and permaculture practices. These talks made significant contributions to raising awareness on sustainable agriculture and the protection of local seeds. The Yalova Atalık Seed Exchange Festival received full marks from the participants as a valuable step taken for the protection of local seeds and the dissemination of sustainable agriculture.
