Farmer Innovation and Food Security
in Southeastern Turkey

In southeastern Turkey, farm communities and the agricultural research system persevered
through years of civil conflict that
ended only recently. Despite difficulties, researchers and farmers
in this rural area achieved a great
deal. Now they are ready for the
next big step. The Direct Aid
Project, funded by Australia
through its embassy in Turkey,
is strengthening their efforts to
communicate and build relationships for continued innovation.

Moving to New
Farming Methods

Looking at the calm, green sweep of wheat fields in southeastern Turkey, an outsider can easily forget that nations and peoples have sought to control this region since antiquity, and that the zone has only recently emerged from a bitter ethnic struggle that claimed many lives. Among inhabitants, there is a palpable sense that it is time to get on with the business of living, and the government is channeling resources to the area so they can do just that.

More than ever, agricultural innovation is needed to support the region’s food security and economic and social goals. The Direct Aid Project funded by the Australian embassy is part of a wider network of support for local growth and development. “The project reinforces communication between the Southeastern Anatolia Agricultural Research Institute (SAARI), CIMMYT, and local farming communities,” explains ¸Sevket Tekin, director of SAARI. “It supports demonstrations and research related to improved planting practices—especially bed planting and reduced tillage—and new wheat varieties for farmers.”

Farmers in Sanli-Urfa, Turkey, near the border with Syria, want to diversify out of wheat and cotton production, and are interested in growing other crops on beds, especially maize and oilseeds. Their isolation from markets remains a barrier: wheat is the traditional crop, easily sold to brokers in local towns.

Local farmers have diverse needs, and need diverse options to break the bonds imposed by rainfed agriculture and short growing seasons. Southeastern Anatolia plays a critical role in national food security—farmers in its nine provinces plant about 1.2 million hectares of wheat— but yields remain low, around 2 tons per hectare in rainfed areas. Agriculture’s common denominator is a lack of water. Rainfall comes to only 350-400 millimeters per year, barely enough. Without irrigation, farmers have little leeway to diversify out of traditional wheat-fallow systems.

The farmers themselves are an assorted group. A few remain the beneficiaries of an ancient land tenure system and own hundreds of hectares. Others, particularly in the north, are much poorer and have much less land. Still others work the land for the large landlords in return for a third of the produce. All have something to gain from the fruits of agricultural research, especially new varieties and cropping practices.

Learning about Bed
Planting

One of the most important activities of the Direct Aid Project is to provide opportunities for researchers to interact more closely with farmers in their communities. At a recent field day around¸Sanli-Urfa, near the border with Syria, farmers were clear about what they wanted: practices to raise yields, save water, and diversify crop production. Bed planting (see box below) can make it easier to achieve both goals, and farmers were curious to see and discuss the field demonstration.

Their participation is crucial. Bed planting is most successful when researchers, farmers, and local equipment manufacturers communicate well.

Turkey was one of the first countries to work with CIMMYT on bed planting. Yüksel Kabakci from Sanli-Urfa attended a course back in 1993 and has collaborated closely with CIMMYT researcher Ken Sayre since then to learn about the technology and explore its potential. Kabakci and his colleagues Hasan Kiliç Songül Gürsoy and Ali Ilkhanall, trained in Mexico, have been developing bed planting and bed planting machines for five to seven years throughout southeastern Anatolia. Turkish agronomists, with Sayre as a resource person, will offer a course on bed planting later this year to 19 other researchers, half from Turkey and half from Central and West Asia. Seven researchers from Central Asia are supported by the Turkish International Cooperation Administration (TICA). The course is organized and supported by the Turkish General Directorate for Agricultural Research and CIMMYT.

All in Short Supply

Farmer Fethi Solan worries about the cost and scarcity of irrigation water, and he thinks that bed planting will help. “I didn’t think the difference with bed planting would be so great,” he says, “but I’m using fewer inputs, especially less diesel, less water and less labor, and I save money.” Ahmet Solhan, another farmer who tried the practice for the first time this year, claims that it reduced his use of irrigation water by 30%. Both say that farming is simply “easier” with bed planting. Both are concerned about the shortage of bed planting equipment. They are trying to get support to purchase planters from the farmers’ union and a local machinery shop, which has been supplying planters throughout Turkey.

Farmers viewing another demonstration further north, near Mermer, had a somewhat different set of concerns that serve to illustrate the versatility of bed planting. Mermer’s heavy clay soils drain poorly and prevent wheat from making the most of rainfall and residual moisture. Farmers sow lots of seed because it usually germinates poorly in the wet soil. According to Kiliç, “At this site, bed planting improves drainage, improves yields, and might offer options for including other crops in the rotation—rice, for example—and reducing insect pests. The cost savings are also there. We have found that farmers can get the same yield from half the amount of seed.”

Assessing New Varieties

The farmers waiting to see the new varieties in the field outside of Diyarbakir seem serious and restrained, but they almost run toward the wheat plots to see what the researchers want to show them. Most varieties are products of collaborative breeding between Turkey and the international wheat breeding system, including Turkey, CIMMYT, and ICARDA. This field day is an opportunity for even more people to learn about them.

Getting the Message

The messages to researchers about the field visits were positive: farmers want more interaction. “If we believe in the technology, we can use it,” said one farmer. “But we need to see it first.” Elizabeth Petrovic, Third Secretary with the Australian Embassy in Turkey, attended the field visits to observe interactions fostered by the Direct Aid Project. “We like this aid to be tied to developmental projects that directly benefit people,” she comments. “This project is appealing for several reasons: the need is obviously great, farmers’ interest is high, and Turkey and Australia have a great deal in common as wheat-growing nations. It’s also good to be able to work with an organization like CIMMYT, that works closely with Turkish organizations and has a good idea of local needs.”

 

Cropping on Raised
Soil Beds: The Facts

CIMMYT researchers and partners in Mexico, South Asia, China, Central Asia, Turkey, and other parts of the world have been experimenting intensively with bed planting for about a decade. In the bed planting system, wheat or another appropriate crop is planted on raised beds of soil 65 to 90 centimeters wide, with 2 to 3 crop rows per bed. After the harvest, most farmers currently remove or incorporate crop residues, destroy the beds by tilling the soil, and make the beds again before planting the next crop. As experience has been gained and appropriate implements developed, farmers who grow crops on beds can now simply reshape the beds before planting the next crop and retain all or part of the crop residues on the surface, a practice referred to as “permanent bed planting.”

Bed planting has numerous benefits. Data from experiments in South Asia show a 30% reduction in production costs through more timely sowing; a 20-40% reduction in irrigation water use, compared with flood irrigation; fewer tractor passes; more efficient use of fertilizer; and the ability to obtain good plant stands and yields using far less seed than with traditional tillage systems. As the South Asian experience has shown, bed planting can support several crops grown in complex relays and rotations. Particularly when permanent beds are used and residue is kept on the soil, the practice improves soil fertility and structure, reduces erosion and water requirements, and facilitates mechanical and manual weeding, allowing farmers to ease up on herbicide use.
  Channels for irrigation water, drainage, tractor
wheels, access for weeding. (These are
re-formed as needed.)

For more information:
j.nicol@cgiar.org

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January, 2005