Under the outputs 1 and 2 of the project GCP/TUR/063/EC, co-financed by the European Union and the Republic of Turkey, a meeting and a workshop were organized at Ankara on 29 and 30 January.

The purpose of the visit was to review and update, with local, national and international members of the project, deliverables, modalities of implementation, budget and work-plan and to ensure the needed coordination between the different stakeholders. Authorities from Government were invited, as well as implementing partners: the University of Southampton, the Royal Belgium Institute of Science and DKM, a local NGO. In addition, the two pilot districts of Ilgin and Kadinhani were visited to meet with local authorities and farmers and undertake an assessment of local conditions.

Main concerns expressed by farmers were: small size of individual parcels (6 ha in average), lack of cooperatives for access to agricultural machines, very high migration rate of young generations (up to 70/80 %), low productivity of grassland, scarce access to markets. Other activities on which local people are involved is coal mines, industrial plants (a plant for sugar production is present in the region) and thermal plants. Main crops are: barley, wheat, sugar-beet, chick-pea and forage. Safflower is also cultivated as a highly-value cash-crop.

The objective of the workshop, teached by Ece Aksoy (GIS expert of the FAO Geospatial Unit) was: to present, discuss and validate the drought projection maps and the methodology of steppe characterization of Turkey, through interactive involvement of the key stakeholders and experts of FAO and Turkey.

Among the participants: 6 technicians from the FAO Project Team, experts from the General Directorate of Agrarian Reform, of Agricultural Research and Policy and of Crop Production of Ankara. Moreover: experts from Provincial Directorate of Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock of Konya, from Bahri Dagdas International Research Centre, and from the Universities of Ataturk, Istanbul, Samsun and Bogazici.

Details about the whole project HERE