Read at : Google Alert – drought
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Drought hits southeastern Anatolia, significantly reducing harvests
As southeastern Turkey struggles with drought, farmers in the region are demanding that the government complete its Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) to protect them from the effects of the drought. Meanwhile Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan is set to visit Diyarbakır on Tuesday to discuss increasing investment in the dam-to-irrigation GAP project. According to the Anatolia news agency, southeastern Anatolia was not affected by the drought that hit more than half of the country, especially central Anatolia and the Aegean region, last year. However, this year drought hit the region and the loss in harvests is expected to reach up to 80 percent, especially in areas that cannot benefit from irrigation. An area of 191,000 hectares irrigated with water provided by GAP’s irrigation system or by groundwater pumping systems has not been affected by the drought in the region, but rest of the region was severely affected. The farmers who have been affected by the drought are rushing to directorates of the Ministry of Agriculture in their provinces in order to take advantage of financial aids being offered to drought victims — the drought aids are given to the farmers if more than 40 percent of their fields are affected by drought. Meanwhile the government is gearing up to announce a revitalization of GAP on Tuesday that is expected to include approximately $12 million in aid to the project.
Şanlıurfa’s Harran University Agricultural Faculty Dean Professor Ali Çullu told Anatolia that the drought experienced in southeastern Anatolia this year would lead to decreases in the country’s cereal stocks. Çullu said drought hit 40 provinces in Turkey last year, especially in the Aegean, Marmara and central Anatolian regions, and that this increased wheat and bread prices as cereal stocks bottomed. Çullu said this year it is only southeastern Anatolia that has been affected by drought, adding that there have been serious harvest losses, especially in the provinces of Mardin, Şanlıurfa, Batman, Diyarbakır, Adıyaman and Şırnak.
Çullu said this year’s rainfall has been much lower than region’s average, adding: “Southeastern Anatolia is one of the most important cereal production centers in Turkey. For this reason the drought in the region will affect the entire country’s cereal stocks. This will affect harvest levels and the family budgets of consumers. The thing we need to do here is to complete the second leg of GAP, namely the irrigation portion. This will reduce the effects of drought in the region.”
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