Watching Ahmet Alper Güner inspect the lush foxtail millet growing in his fields on the edge of Denizli, in western Türkiye, few people would think he started producing only seven years ago. Even fewer could imagine the unconventional journey that brought him here.
“Farming was not my main profession,” Ahmet, who is now in his early 50, explains. “Years ago, I began keeping birds as a hobby. But I soon discovered that the feed I was purchasing from abroad made my birds ill.” After losing many of his beloved birds, he realized they needed more hygienic and nutritious millets. Soon, the civil engineer was growing his own.
Millets were not well known or widely produced in Türkiye at the time, and the little that was produced was for animal feed. Recently, however, millet flour has started to attract more attention as human food as well, particularly for celiac patients looking for gluten-free, nutritious options.
And this is where his wife, Neriman Güner, has carved out her own niche in the business. A keen cook who explores new recipes with great enthusiasm, she became increasingly curious about the potential for incorporating millets into the daily diet of people and began experimenting with new dishes using their own foxtail millet.
Using their local mill to make flour and bulgur, “as we normally do with wheat”, they’ve produced millet bread and millet pilaf with great success. “We also prepared a milky semolina dessert, which is popular in Türkiye, using millets instead of wheat. It was delicious too.”
Today, the two are farming together, using climate-friendly practices such as drip irrigation and precision fertilization, which has increased their yield from about one tonne per hectare to 8 tonnes per hectare.
In addition, the Güners also operate a thriving e-commerce website through which they sell their millet products, and are working to build an export business.
“By producing this gluten-free nutritious food and adding value to millets, we can create new entrepreneurship and employment opportunities in Türkiye,” says Neriman. “[And] that can help improve the livelihoods of rural households.”
