TOROSLAR MUNICIPALITY TO IMPLEMENT THE AGRICULTURAL CLIMATE PROJECT

Toroslar Municipality, which encourages farmers to produce new products with its R&D studies on alternative agriculture, has become a partner of a new EU project to reduce the effects of climate change on agriculture.

“Project on Mitigation of the Effects of Climate Change through Sustainable Agricultural Biodiversity Management of Climate Change (Agricultural Climate)”, one of the projects of service period of Mayor Hamit Tuna, that will be carried out in parallel with the “Project on Supporting Agriculture and Livestock” was demonstated to the public.

The project, funded by the European Union (EU) and the Republic of Turkey, carried out by Mersin Chamber of Agriculture in partnership with Mersin University, Toroslar Municipality and Thessaloniki Organic Agricultural Producers Association was demonstrated at a press conference held at Mersin University. Mersin University Rector Prof. Dr. Ahmet Çamsarı, Salih Özkan, Deputy Major of Toroslar Municipality, Cengiz Gökçel, President of Mersin Chamber of Agriculture, Dimitris Simeonidis, President of Thessaloniki Organic Agricultural Producers Association, and Project Specialist Christos Georgiadis, Ahmet Ata, Toroslar Municipality Project Coordinator, lecturers of Mersin University and press members participated in the meeting.

Mesut Salih Uzman, Project Coordinator and Lecturer of Mersin University made an opening speech about details of the project targeting a road map by submitting the report to be prepared at the end of the project, which will take approximately 18 months, to the relevant Ministries. “Our project, which we submitted to the Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation in 2016, was accepted among approximately 400 projects in May 2017 and was among 38 projects. The project has a budget worth 50 thousand Euros granted by the EU and the Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation. We are in a process where climate change is happening every day and this is mainly caused by our people. The effects of greenhouse gases make people confronted with negative situations. Within this framework, we will provide awareness raising trainings on climate change to primary school students in Toroslar District. Our main target group is our farmers and breeders who are most affected by climate change. Information will be provided to farmers starting from producer associations. We expect much support from the Thessaloniki Producers Association. We will share information on how to implement good practices in the EU and sustainable environmentally friendly agricultural practices in Mersin. We will try to transfer these to our farmers and breeders, and have them applied. The third stage is the sustainability phase. Because after the projects are finished, they are shelved unfortunately, and continuity is not provided. We want this information sharing to be sustainable and we plan to create an information network. In the last stage, we aim to create a policy in the presence of the Ministry to mitigate the effects of climate change both at the local and national level in line with the results and feedback we have obtained from the practices here,” said Uzman.

Later, Cengiz Gökçel, President of Mersin Chamber of Agriculture, emphasized that the producers of the economic sector damaged most by the natural disasters. “Preparing the agriculture of both Mersin and the country for the future, creating awareness on this issue is a source of pride for all who have participated in this work. Because it will help us do the right thing about our future,” said Gökçel.

Dimitris Simeonidis, President of Thessaloniki Organic Agricultural Producers Association, and Project Specialist Christos Georgiadis stated that they were very happy to support this project in which the results regarding the producers’ working conditions and necessary assistance will be obtained.

Having informed about the agricultural projects and studies realized by Toroslar Municipality, which is the partner of the project, Ahmet Ata, Toroslar Municipality Project Coordinator, talked about the “Project on Supporting Agriculture and Livestock” , one of the projects of 2014-2019 service period of Mayor Hamit Tuna, to be carried out in parallel with the climate change project.

“Our Mayor Hamit Tuna has broken new grounds in Mersin with social projects. The “Project on Supporting Agriculture and Livestock” is also among the 41 projects that we will carry out as equivalent to the Climate Change Project of which we are a partner. Last year, we made necessary studies with Konya Selçuk University Faculty of Veterinary. Livestock is also included in the agricultural climate project. Our municipality, which produces different alternative products, will also carry out studies on sheep&goat and cattle farming. We will select pilot neighborhoods,” said Ata.

Mersin University Rector Prof. Dr. Ahmet Çamsarı underlined that they had the pride of leading the project. “We have the pride of pioneering this project first time in the region, and in Turkey maybe. Because we are aware of the importance of this business, we are aware of what it will cost us in the future. We will surely share the outputs of the project and the results of the study with the relevant Ministries and I believe that it will be effective in guiding the national policies as these will be of academic origin.” said Çamsarı

At the end of the meeting, participants answered questions from press members.