Photo: © FAO/Emre Anıl

Ankara – In the town of Sivrihisar in Eskisehir province, members of the “Asma Yaprağı Women’s Cooperative” have begun cultivating tomatoes in a new 528-metre greenhouse provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The initiative forms part of the “Land Degradation Neutrality Upper Sakarya Basin Project”, which was launched in 2020 and is implemented by FAO in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in the provinces of Ankara, Eskisehir and Kütahya. The project which aims to reduce the effects of climate change and prevent land degradation is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

The Land Degradation Neutrality Upper Sakarya Basin Project encompasses a wide variety of activities. In the upper basins, afforestation and pasture improvement work is carried out to promote soil conservation; meanwhile, income-generating initiatives such as the Asma Yaprağı Women’s Cooperative are being introduced in the lower basins of the project area.

The cooperative’s members received training in all aspects of greenhouse cultivation including soil preparation, irrigation, fertilization and disease control. This instruction was provided by the Tekirdağ Leader Farmer Association (Önder Ciftci Derneği) at FAO Farmer Field Schools and was facilitated by experts from the provincial Directorate of Forestry and Agriculture. This inter-institutional cooperation and coordination proved crucial in supporting the women’s cooperative.

This practical instruction involved on-site experimentation with different cultivation methods as well as organized exchange trips to greenhouses that employ various technological production methods to produce tomatoes. On one such trip, the women of the Asma Yaprağı Women’s Cooperative visited the tomato greenhouse at ITC Integrated Solid Waste Management Systems, where they received training on best practices in tomato cultivation.

After the tomatoes are harvested, they are dried using drying equipment also supplied by FAO. The dried tomatoes are then sold year-round, providing a constant stream of income for the cooperative.

The very first tomato harvest of the Asma Yaprağı Women’s Cooperative took place at the Emre Anıl-Sivrihisar Greenhouse Area in Sivrihisar. The event was attended by Erdogan Özevren, FAO GEF Coordinator; Sibel Tekin, National Project Coordinator; Hüseyin Sayın, Sivrihisar District Governor; Hamid Yüzgüllü, Sivrihisar Mayor; and Yunus Güneş, Deputy Head of Soil Conservation and Basin Improvement Department from the General Directorate of Forestry.

Sibel Tekin, the National Project Coordinator, expressed satisfaction with the success of project’s activities in the field. Speaking about the wider aims of the Land Degradation Neutrality Upper Sakarya Basin Project, she emphasized that land degradation disproportionately impacts vulnerable groups, particularly women, and highlighted the importance of empowering them and creating alternative sources of income such as the greenhouse farming activities of the Asma Yaprağı Women’s Cooperative.