Agriculture is decreasing day by day: We are working for others

We have 100 acres of land, but we have nothing. Can you see the houses around us? All of them are landowners, but they have left their homes and settled in Diyarbakir.

Farmer Ali Gulec

According to the farmer Ali Gulec who said these words, agriculture is no longer possible in Turkey.

28-year-old Ali Gulec explains the situation of farmers in northern Kurdistan. He comes from the Ergani district of Diyarbakir. He has been a farmer since childhood.

He is both a farmer and Kurdish language teacher. He inherited the farm from his family.

I am doing the work of my ancestors, formerly we could earn a little money, but now we don’t even have it.

Farmer Ali Gulec

To get to know Ali better, we leave Diyarbakir and go to the village of Mayadun of Ergani.

The village of Mayadun is 30 kilometers far from Diyarbakir and is located on the road to Elazig.

We drive through endless fields and reach Meyadun village.

When we reach the village, Ali comes to greet us.

He is a very cheeky young man. His eyes light up when he talks about his work. Considering the agricultural situation in the countryside, his hope is still alive.

I like agriculture. If you do not like agriculture, you can not do it. This job has a lot of difficulties. I have seen myself, I am busy with agriculture. I wish we could have had the opportunity and been more involved with our land. But agriculture is dead. Your expenses do not cost you anymore.

Farmer Ali Gulec

The speeches of Ali is not normal. Because the farmers are unable to pay their expenses, they gradually leave their land and settle in the cities.

In Turkey, the number of farmers has decreased in the last 20 years as the population has increased.

Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture also confirm Ali’s words.

According to the Ministry’s statistics, in 2001 there were 2 million and 182 thousand and 767 registered farmers, but this number has decreased to 2 million and 173 thousand and 9 in 2021.

“Farmers stop producing lentils”

The center of the lentils is cities of Diyarbakir, Sanliurfa and Mardin and most of the lentils are distributed from these cities throughout Turkey.

However, because farmers in the region unable to cover their costs, they stop producing lentils.

We used to plant lentils, but now we grow wheat. I remember when we were children, this land was worked for 24 hours, but now many farmers like us don’t harvest rice. Because of diesel and fertilizer prices, we don’t pay for the seeds we grow.

In the region, the number of farmers who have grown wheat, is increasing every day.

Head of the Yenisehir Chamber of Agriculture: We are not earn money

According to the chairman of the Diyarbakir Chamber of Agriculture, Suleyman Iskenderoglu, farmers are not cultivating their fields due to poor agricultural policies.

In the cities of the north, hundreds of farmers give up farming because they are not earn money. For example, the farmers have harvested lentils, but the government has not yet announced the price of lentils. The borrowed farmers are forced to sell their rice to traders. The laboriously sown seeds are then sold at a loss today.

According to the Turkish Statistical Institute’s (TUİK) 2023 statistics for the month of March, the price index for agricultural inputs increased by 106.81 percent compared to the same month last year.

This news was translated by Yonca Sarsilmaz

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