The breakfast meeting organized by the Antalya Provincial Directorate of Food, Agriculture and Livestock brought together companies in the biological control sector.
The Antalya Provincial Directorate of Food, Agriculture and Livestock Ahmet Dallı, the Antalya Agricultural Quarantine Director Ekrem Çetin, BİOTED Chairman Ali Eroğlu and representatives of BİOTED member companies attended the event organized jointly with the Biological Control Products, Producers and Suppliers Association (BİOTED).
Ahmet Dallı, who gave the opening speech at the meeting, said the purpose of the meeting was to determine the steps to be undertaken for the dissemination of biological control.
Provincial Quarantine Director Çetin summed up as follows: “Products produced within biological control are more popular on the foreign market. In order to avoid any export trouble, I believe that biological and biotechnical control methods, which are actually considered as parts of Integrated Pest Management, should be disseminated more widely”.
Stating that they are a young organization as BİOTED, Ali Eroğlu noted that the sector is gradually growing and emphasized, “I would like to express my gratitude toward our Provincial Director Mr. Ahmet Dallı for inspiring all of us to gather here and for invoking the importance of the sector.”
Providing information about agriculture of Antalya and its status of biological control within a presentation, the Plant Production and Plant Health Branch Manager, Mr. Mehmet Şen said that the Ministry provides subsidies and such subsidies continue to increase every year. Şen indicated that their goal is to increase biological control up to 70-80%, particularly in pepper areas. He underline that in 2012, 969 thousand TL of support was given on 3,800 decares of land and that rate was increased by 92% in 2013, reaching 1,842 thousand TL on approximately 6,000 decares of land.
Underlining the need for joint efforts by sector stakeholders to expand the application, Şen said, “There are some inconveniences we observe in the field. We also expect help from the companies to fix them.”
The meeting continued with questions and proposals for resolution from the sector representatives. Provincial Director Dallı noted that a training program to be organized jointly by the association, the sector and the Provincial Directorate could raise awareness among producers, consumers and dealers. Mr. Dallı pointed out that the support and suggestions of the companies will be essential in the preparation of the training program and emphasized that a common discourse will be very important in this endeavor. Provincial Director Dallı also underlined that they would like to apply to development agencies and EU project support offices by preparing a biological control project for pepper fields in Aksu and Demre, to which the association and sector representatives should contribute. Dallı also mentioned that demonstration studies can also be carried out by the Provincial Directorate under the name of the Association.
The meeting, which was evaluated as a productive event by the representatives of the sector, ended with the closing speech of the Provincial Director Ahmet Dallı. As a final remark, Dallı said: “I will be a follower of the issue; there is no problem that cannot be solved if our organization, the association and you are supporters”.
(News: M. Önder Yazan – Photography: Gürsel Cingöz)
BIOTED MEMBERS WHO ATTENDED THE MEETING
Ayhan Kasapoğlu (NEKTAR TARIM – BİOMARKET)
Gökçe Cengiz (BASF)
Ahmet Özgür Ateş (BİOGLOBAL)
Ali Eroğlu (KOPPERT)
Hakan Tayfun Aydın (BİOGRUP)
Tuncer Çevik (KAPAR)
Mehmet Oba (ANTİLSAN)
Cansu Göloğlu (ONCABİO)
Mehmet Demirci (AGROBEST)
Levent Gelgeç (ALTINTAR)
