Turkey’s First Livestock Technologies Festival Started at MAKÜ.

For the first time in Turkey, the Livestock Technologies R&D and Innovation Festival (HAYTEKFEST), which will guide the livestock sector, hosted by Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University (MAKÜ), has started.

With HAYTEKFEST, it is aimed to bring out local and national technology-based projects in the livestock sector, whose strategic importance is increasing day by day within the scope of Turkey's National Technology Initiative, and to implement these projects quickly and effectively.

Within the scope of HAYTEKFEST, 101 projects from all over Turkey participated. Among the 101 projects, 37 projects made it to the finals through a three-stage evaluation. These finalist projects will be presented for three days and evaluated by a jury of experts in their field, and the top three projects will be awarded. The festival, which will award 100 thousand TL to the first place, 75 thousand TL to the second place, and 50 thousand TL to the third place, received intense participation.

The opening program of HAYTEKFEST, held at Lavanta Tepesi Hotel, was attended by Deputy Governor Ahmet Mailoğlu, Rector Prof. Dr. Adem Korkmaz, Hacettepe University Rector Prof. Dr. Mehmet Cahit Güran, SDÜ Rector Prof. Dr. İlker Çarıkçı, Kırklareli University Vice Rector Prof. Dr. Nurettin Aka, Advisor to the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Assoc. Dr. Sait Muharrem Say, BAKA Secretary General Volkan Güler, Vice Rectors Prof. Dr. Durmuş Acar, Prof. Dr. Mehmet Karaca, Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Dalgar, Rector's Advisor Prof. Dr. Ömer Tekşen, officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, representatives of Non-Governmental Organizations, representatives of Political Parties, Public Institution Managers, Sector Representatives, academicians, and students.

TÜBİTAK President Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal: “Livestock Technologies Are Very Important for Our Future”

The program, which started with a moment of silence and the reading of the National Anthem, was joined live by TÜBİTAK President Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal. In his opening speech, Mandal emphasized the following: “The gathering of academicians, our young human resources, livestock technology sector representatives, public and NGOs within the scope of HAYTEKFEST with a focus on sustainable livestock is very valuable. Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University is increasing scientific and technological approaches for sustainable livestock by conducting regionally focused projects in the field of livestock. Among the 37 projects that will compete in the finals within the scope of HAYTEKFEST, there are project examples covering animal health technologies, poultry technologies, nanotechnology, and sensor technologies. Collaboration based on co-development in the focus of livestock technologies is of key importance for our common future. There is a great effort in this work carried out today. I thank everyone who supported, contributed, and participated.”

The program then continued with the screening of the MAKÜ 2023 Promotional Film prepared by the Corporate Communication Center (KİMER).

Chairman of the Organizing Committee Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Dalgar: “We Focused on Nationalizing Livestock Technologies”

In the program, which continued with opening speeches, HAYTEKFEST Organizing Committee Chairman Vice Rector Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Dalgar also gave a speech. Starting his speech by expressing condolences regarding the earthquakes referred to as the disaster of the century, Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Dalgar provided information about the HAYTEKFEST process. Dalgar said, “While working in the field of livestock technologies, we saw that the sector we call livestock technology in Turkey is dependent on foreign sources. Then we said, let's focus on nationalizing livestock technologies, and as a result, the idea of HAYTEKFEST emerged. We started our work by taking the strength of the Faculty of Engineering of our Hacettepe University and Kırklareli University with us. Can we make Burdur the center of livestock technologies? Can we make our Technopark a thematic Technopark? With such thoughts and with the support of our Development Agency, we embarked on such a journey, and at the point we have reached, 101 projects came to us from all over Turkey at the startup level, new entrepreneur level, researcher level, student level, and at the level of companies that have reached a certain size. These 101 projects will find their owners through a three-stage evaluation. A three-stage scoring was done for the awards, and the evaluation process was objective. With the support of our sponsors, we will provide 100 thousand TL to the first project, 75 thousand TL to the second, and 50 thousand TL to the third. Within the scope of HAYTEKFEST, we have seminars with the participation of leading representatives of the sector. I thank everyone who contributed.”

BAKA Secretary General Volkan Güler: “Our Region Will Soon Be One of the Most Mentioned Regions in Terms of Entrepreneurship”

Western Mediterranean Development Agency Secretary General Volkan Güler said, “As the Western Mediterranean Development Agency, we have identified the development of the eco-tourism sector, the medicinal and aromatic plants sector, and entrepreneurship as our main focus. In the near future, our region will be one of the most mentioned regions in terms of entrepreneurship. To finance the project, we announced a program last year to strengthen the entrepreneurship ecosystem. I would like to express my gratitude once again to our esteemed rector, who led the realization of such a project, and to all the members of the organizing committee. Hopefully, we have implemented a project that will bring good results together.”

Advisor to the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Çukurova University Faculty Member Assoc. Dr. Sait Muharrem Say, in his speech, emphasized the following: “First of all, I am very happy to be here and to have the chance to address you on this journey that started with a proposal for refereeing. By following the light of science and with the influence and energy of such organizations, there is no reason not to look to the future very positively with our well-educated young population, which Europe looks at with envy. I thank everyone who made an effort here, and I express my gratitude once again for giving me the chance to be here.

Kırklareli University Vice Rector Prof. Dr. Nurettin Akar also said, “Within the scope of the Regional Development Focused Mission Differentiation program, the Livestock Sector Digital Technologies Joint Application and Research Center was established under the coordination of Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, which specializes in the field of livestock, in partnership with Kırklareli University and Hacettepe University, and was approved by the Higher Education Council. With the established joint center, it is aimed to develop livestock in the country, especially in Burdur province, by combining the projects to be carried out in the field of livestock with the developing technologies of our age.”

Hacettepe University Rector Prof. Dr. Mehmet Cahit Güran also said in his speech: “We are very happy to be a partner of the Livestock Sector Digital Technologies Joint Application and Research Center together with Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University. I find it very meaningful to hold such a beautiful organization and thank everyone who contributed.”

Rector Prof. Dr. Adem Korkmaz “MAKÜ's Work in the Field of Livestock Has Entered the Investment Program of Our Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry”

Rector Prof. Dr. Adem Korkmaz, in his speech, said, “This great disaster we have experienced as a nation is a great shock. We have not yet overcome the shock as a society because the trauma is very big, so we are still in this process. When we saw the magnitude of the disaster, we consulted with our friends and were concerned that it might be confused with classical summer festivals because of its name as a festival, but since it is HAYTEKFEST, the Livestock Technologies R&D and Innovation Festival carried out by the university, we decided to continue the process, considering that we have no time to wait in scientific fields such as technology and R&D.

As Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, we have also made efforts to build innovative studies and models in many areas from time to time with the opportunities and potentials given to us by being a new and young university. New university models are being discussed in the world, such as entrepreneurial university models, specialization university models, and universities that provide regional orientation. Being a young university provided us with opportunities to carry out these studies in this field, and in this sense, we tried to obtain concrete outputs and results by filling in the framework of some model searches within the existing regulations. The main issue today is the production of knowledge. When we look at the development rankings of countries in the world, knowledge production comes first, but it is not enough to produce knowledge alone. You need to turn it into technology. The market comes into play. Our Ministry of Industry and Technology, our Development Agency, and many public institutions in the country have many studies to encourage entrepreneurship. We have also implemented some studies within a regional approach. We concluded some studies within the patent and classical R&D modeling and continue to do so. We continue to focus on this issue. We carried out some studies at the point of commercialization by establishing joint venture groups with companies specialized in the sector. In addition, we had approaches to turn the knowledge we produced into services in the market. One of them is the support of dairy farms in the livestock sector within the scope of quality, which was included in the investment program of our Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry this year. This is a subject we have been working on for about 3 years. In the process of accreditation and certification of livestock enterprises, our Certification Center was accredited by the Turkish Accreditation Agency. In other words, it became an institution with a program. After our Technology Transfer Office Joint Stock Company passed the same accreditation, it reached a point of joint work with our Ministry. The project we presented to our Ministry was included in the investment program of the Ministry this year. We are doing many projects, many institutions are doing incredible R&D service-oriented studies. We had a meeting with our Provincial Directorate of Agriculture last week. We are launching a call soon. Our Provincial Directorate will make the call, and we will carry out the field operations as a university. We classify our enterprises in 4 categories as A-B-C-D and candidate based on approximately 150 parameters. It is necessary to increase the quality of these enterprises in every aspect, such as human resources, technical equipment, organization, software. Because economic statistics show that Turkey's cattle and sheep population is more than enough to meet the need for both meat and milk. From time to time, we experience some problems such as meat-milk prices and production style. Every university should produce concrete models that will transform knowledge into service in active cooperation with relevant public institutions and the sector in the areas where it is strong. Are these being done within the existing structure? Yes, but we need to move much faster. The contributions of universities to the design of policies to be produced by public institutions, policy designers, and implementers are very important, and our ministries also have their own R&D units. But universities are much stronger here. On this