Protecting agricultural lands: Transforming a Crisis Into an Opportunity in Nilufer

Transforming a Crisis Into an Opportunity in Nilufer

Nilufer’s fertile agricultural lands are gradually decreasing as a result of: climate change, global warming, resource scarcity, pollutions and waste, environmental degradation, biodiversity losses, population growth, unplanned / fast growing urbanization into agricultural lands, industrialization and misuse of agricultural lands. It’s so obvious to see the affects of those in many cities. These factors also affect the sustainability of agricultural production too. Nilufer Municipality, which was aware of this situtation, declared 2020 as the Year of Agriculture (2021 Food, 2022 Climate, 2023 Design) and provided many supports to both citizens and farmers to encourage agriculture more. Nilufer Municipality was also involved in the FUSILLI project after kicking-off these projects. At the same time, it also supported the activities and it initiated the protection of agricultural lands with FUSILLI actions.

In fact, not only thematic years or the FUSILLI project, but also the vision of a national agriculture-based growth strategy and sustainability was put forward by the founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, approximately 90 years ago:

“The foundation of the national economy is agriculture. That is why we attach great importance to development in agriculture. Programmatic and practical studies that will spread to the villages will facilitate the achievement of this goal. However, in order to achieve this vital task accurately, it is first necessary to determine an agricultural policy based on serious studies and to establish an agricultural regime that every villager and all citizens can easily understand and apply with pleasure…”

While trying to develop sustainable agricultural production in Nilufer, the Municipality needed data in order to learn the characteristics of the soil in lands. So the Municipality started some activities to tackle this: taking soil samples by performing profile excavations, sharing the results of soil analyzes with local producers, preparing and publishing land-use maps of Nilufer on a public platform (online) and providing agricultural trainings for local farmers are the primary tasks. All of those steps were taken to determinr a balanced plant nutrition program and determine the soil fertility (determining the amounts of plant nutrients). Future steps will build on this foundation. Nilufer Municipality procured a service for taking soil samples from 400 points in Nilufer and the idea is widening the range of soil analysis in order to collect more data. One key question is in mind: does lowering the costs of soil analysis result in involving more local producers and land owners? – or does it result in a wider coverage of analyzed areas?

 While these questions were in mind, Nilufer Municipality was aiming to cover all areas of Nilufer borders, but things were going on the opposite direction. The number of authorized laboratories that could perform soil, water and plant analysis in the region was “1”: there was only one authorized laboratory capable of performing soil, water, and plant analysis, and it was on the verge of closing due to financial difficulties. We needed more services from that laboratory, and an initiative with high strategic priority should not be facing closure. At the same time, this meant both a higher cost of analysis and sending samples out of town.

A Big Hello to Christopher Nolan

The Municipality found “Saito’s kind of a solution” (a reference from the movie ‘Inception’), by purchasing the whole laboratory which was about to close, and doing it with hiring all the existing employees and then transferred the management of the laboratory to Nilufer Agricultural Development Cooperative (NILKOOP). That’s a huge hello to Christopher Nolan and as you see, this step was a just a move for bigger aims.

Of course there are new questions in mind; is there a legal barrier for the Municipality to have its own lab and giving its operations to a cooperative? Can the Municipality do our own soil analysis in Nilufer and can it provide the criteria for the authorization of laboratory?  No legal obstacles occured.

Ready, Set… Action!

Soil analysis services continued and the lab’s name has changed as “Nilufer Agricultural Analysis Laboratory”. The laboratory will examine: the amount of nutrients in the agricultural lands, the ability to provide nutrients to the plants, the amount and type of fertilizer to be applied, and feeding disorders in the soil.

 The laboratory has expanded the agricultural services more with the soil mapping project in Nilufer, the soil analysis of the entire Nilufer has started and made available to the public on the municipality’s site: Nilüfer E-Municipality (nilufer.bel.tr). The Municipality has more capability to serve: for instance, analysis of the compost that Municipality produced, analysis of the irrigation water resources, free leaf analysis for fruit growers and providing “not cheaper because free” soil analysis to farmers. Then the promotions started for encouraging local producers to provide samples for soil analysis and (so) the mapping project.

The “Detailed Soil Surveys of Nilufer District Lands, Preparation of Landuse Plan and Village Based Current Landuse Maps Project” in Nilufer was completed and the project results launched with an event. The website integrations were done and the all the map data is available online. What is more, a book of this project has been published digitally.

Soil analysis results for each land in Nilufer is accessible by making a selection on the online map or by entering island parcel information of the land. Nilufer producers/residents can learn which product will grow most ideally in which soil and under what conditions it should be grown.

It’s Not Over Yet

In order to reduce the production costs of local producers, Municipality took samples from more than 400 points and analyzed them and shared the results with the producers. It was more important to reach out to farmers rather than only organizing a public event. The analysis results were printed for a pilot (Çatalağıl) neighborhood and presented to land owners by the Mayor himself. The results were explaind with the help of the municipal agricultural engineers. They were given advice on obtaining more products with less inputs. Local producers are happy with analysis service but it needs to be known by other rural neighborhoods.

Training on the importance of Soil Analysis in Agricultural Production was held in Badirga neighborhood. Mayor, deputy mayor, academicians, directorates, engineers organized the training to gain more awareness with local news. 

Nilufer Municipality (and so NILKOOP) carries out leaf analysis in the villages where the Municipality previously distributed strawberry seedlings. Municipality conducted soil analysis for gardens in 2023 and will conduct soil analysis for those who will plant sunflowers in 2024. The trainings on the importance of soil analysis in rural neighborhoods will be continued. Free leaf analysis for specific products like strawberry will be carried out free of charge in Atlas and Inegazi neighborhoods and free soil analysis for specific products like olive cultivation in Görükle Neighborhood, will be carried out as well. Sunflowers analyzes will be carried out and will be continues with corn species.

The biggest goal in agricultural production is to obtain more and higher quality products from a unit area. Fertilization is one of the most important applications for this purpose. However, the first step in conscious and balanced fertilization is soil analysis.

It should not be forgotten that analysis in agricultural production not only provides abundant products, but also reduces fertilizer input in production, prevents pollution of soil and water resources, and reduces plant protection costs.

Today, these services and investments that Nilufer Municipality provided for the protection of the soil, collaborations with cooperatives, producers and academicians are all made for a more sustainable Nilufer.

Author: Mehmet Can Yilmaz, Nilufer Municipality

Photo Credits: Nilufer Municipality