Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Prof. Dr. Vahit Kirişci met with the representatives of the agriculture sector in the province as part of his visit to Kütahya. Minister Kirişci started his speech by thanking the people of Kütahya who embraced those affected by the earthquakes in Kahramanmaraş on 6 February. Stating that they continue to heal the wounds in the earthquake area, Kirişci said that these cities will be restored in a short time.
Reminding that they have started the turnkey delivery of the village houses built in the region, Kirişci said, "On this occasion, we have shown all our earthquake victims, our brothers and sisters who are waiting for permanent housing, what we can do and how we can do it." used the phrase.
Kirişci explained that as the Ministry, they constantly come together with the stakeholders of the sector and make evaluations.
Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Kirişci, who gave information about the arrangements made regarding planned and contracted production and the Farmer Registration System, continued his words as follows:
“As our President has stated, we do not want an inch of land to be empty. Therefore, in order not to leave this one inch of land empty, we introduce the practice of renting the vacant areas for two consecutive years, provided that the rent is paid to the property owner in the following years. This is how we separate the right of use from the right of ownership. Of course, we have a large number of forest villagers in Kütahya, where 56 percent of it is forest. There are citizens who benefit from ORKOY. We know how difficult conditions these are for claiming our forests. In this context, we have 4-5 steps that will ease our forest villagers economically. We will give 10 percent of the income we will get from the forest to the forest villagers, who protect and watch the forest like a guard without any charge. In other words, the forest is in front of us and we think that you cannot make use of that forest economically or that you cannot make use of it sufficiently. Therefore, with such an application, we will give 10 percent of the income obtained from forest products to the forest villagers in that region.”
Feeding Sugar Support for Beekeepers in the Earthquake Zone
Minister Kirişci stated that they are working to meet the timber needs of the forest villagers and to expand the social security in the countryside, and touched on the regulation regarding forest cooperatives.
Pointing out that there are returns from rural to urban areas especially after the epidemic process, Kirişci said, “We want the countryside this time not to be irregular. Be more organized, more planned. That's why we're trying to create a village concept that we call a 'smart village'.” made his statement.
Kirişci stated that they will complete the irrigation of the lands across the country with drip or sprinkler irrigation systems within a period of 5 years at the latest.
Expressing the point reached regarding the staffing process of temporary workers, Prof. Dr. Vahit Kirişci said:
“We have also started the transition, work and transactions of our 26 brothers and sisters who work in temporary status and worker status within the body of our Ministry. I hope they will increase their current services even more after they move to this staff. May he grant these brothers and sisters the opportunity to do good services to our country and our nation. I would like to express my gratitude once again to Mr. President, of course, at the point of giving these cadres. I would like to point out that we will hopefully make the Century of Turkey the century of agriculture and forestry with the efforts of our colleagues from all branches.”
Minister Vahit Kirişci stated that aid was provided to beekeepers in the provinces affected by the earthquake and said, “As of today, we have started to distribute 12 tons of feeding sugar for 10 million 328 thousand 1 bee hives to 339 thousand 613 beekeeper brothers in our 5 provinces. May my Lord bless their production as well.” said.
After his speech, Minister Kirişci gave their representative checks to the producers who received grant support in Kütahya.