Türkiye Plans Effective Water Use Training for Farmers to Combat Food Security

• Türkiye Launches Sectoral Water Allocation Plans in 2023 to Obtain Maximum Income with less #Water.
• Türkiye’s balanced use of water resources for combating drought

Ankara: Farmers across the Türkiye will receive training on protecting the quality and quantity of water resources and observing the usage balance, an initiative widely lauded for combating drought in the country, reported the Turkish media.

Türkiye’s Agriculture and Forestry Ministry will implement measures to ensure food safety against climate change within the scope of combating drought.

According to local media report, the Sectoral Water Allocation Plans (SSTP) will be put into use in the agricultural sector, which will provide the highest level of economic return in irrigation areas during dry periods.

With the project, it will be ensured that the use of water resources is planned correctly, fair and balanced water sharing among the sectors that use water, and the benefit to be obtained from water use will be maximized.

According to details of project, Water allocation planning will be carried out in many basins for drinking and utility water, environmental water demand, agriculture, animal husbandry, aquaculture, industry, energy mining and other basin-specific sectors. The SSTP works have been completed in six basins so far.

Moreover, works are ongoing in other 11 basins. Aiming to generate maximum income with the minimum use of irrigation water, the project will increase the net income of the agricultural sector and take measures according to drought conditions by determining the water needs in advance.

To ensure effective usage of water, the Ministry is also preparing a comprehensive training program for farmers, who are the most important actors in agricultural production.

The training planned by considering the needs of farmers, including conscious irrigation and developing technology applications, will start in 2023.

Agriculture and Forestry Minister Vahit Kirişci underlined Türkiye has to use its water resources in the most efficient way.

Stating that agricultural water use constitutes a significant part of the country’s water consumption, Kirişçi pointed out that his ministry is working to keep this use in balance as much as possible.

“The need for water is increasing every day. Around 76 percent of our total water consumption goes directly to agricultural irrigation,” he added.

“All our effort is to use water in the most efficient way,” the minister added.

Türkiye has achieved marvelous agriculture production, ranking eighth in the world in terms of the highest agricultural production, and agricultural production was reported around $61 billion in 2015.

#Pakistan agriculture authorities could learn effective water planning approaches from #Türkiye for the optimum agriculture production as the country faces severe food shortages amid water stress.

By: M.A

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