Photo: ©FAO

As part of its support for Farmer Field Schools,FAO Turkey organized a farmers field day within the framework of the “Sustainable Land Management and Climate Friendly Agriculture Project”. The event took place on rehabilitated pastureland in Bogrudelik which is a village in Cihanbeyli, Konya of on pasture rehabilitation in. Steering Committee members based in Ankara participated virtually in the field day activities via Instagram as part of the 8th Steering Committee Meeting of the Project.

At the opening of the event, FAO Agriculture Officer Fazil Dusunceli briefly introduced the project to the participants, explaining that it constituted “a fruitful example of collaboration between the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and FAO, with the involvement of the General Directorates for Desertification and Erosion Control, Agricultural Reform, and Agricultural Research and Policies, as well as Provincial and District Directorates”. He also emphasized that “the rehabilitation and conservation of pastures is a key objective of FAO and the GEF, and fundamental to the sustainable use of these natural resources and the improvement of livelihoods of rural people”.

The Director of the Bahri Dagdas International Agricultural Research Institute, Fatih Özdemir who implemented and monitored the field activities, explained that the rehabilitation work had been carried out over the last two years on an area of 45 hectares, and showed the clear differences between rehabilitated and non-rehabilitated sections. He also acknowledged the important contributions of GEF, FAO, the General Directorates of Desertification and Erosion Control and Agricultural Reform, as well as Farmer Field School members of the Bogrudelik village. The head of the Cihanbeyli Chamber of Agriculture, Veysel Akbulut then thanked the project team for the support given to the district throughout the duration of this and other activities.

More than 50 participants took part in the field day activities including farmers from Bogrudelik and neighbouring villages, as well as representatives from the Provincial and District directorates of Konya and Cihanbeyli, respectively.

The participants were given a tour of the pasture by two experts in pasture rehabilitation, Mehmet Tezel and Zafer Arısoy, who described the underlying principles of the process as well as its sustainable use and conservation. The experts explained that “the pasture is split into three parts to allow for rotational grazing”, a procedure based on the principle of ‘one month grazing, two months rest’, and emphasized that “following these principles is essential to the sustainable use of pasture”.

During the field day, farmers and experts exchanged views, knowledge and experiences while visiting the rehabilitated pastureland. Farmer Sami Yıldırım who left the village 45 years ago and has now returned to the village shared his observations: “I am extremely happy to see this improvement. When I left the village, this pasture was so severely degraded no sheep could graze. Seeing this land reviving gives me enormous hope for the protection of our natural resources”.

At the end of the day, Cetin Unal, Mukhtar of the village, expressed gratitude to GEF, FAO and all the concerned institutions of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry as well as to all individuals who contributed to the work. He concluded by stating that “we are aware of importance of this unique resource, and myself and our village as a whole are committed to the conservation and sustainable use of this pasture through rotational grazing for future generations”.