Minister Vahit Kirişçi’s Praise and Support for MAKÜ’s Project

Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Vahit Kirişçi met with sector representatives at the MAKÜ Conference Hall during his visit to Burdur. The meeting, which saw wide participation from representatives of the agriculture and livestock sector in our province and the provincial protocol, was also attended by MAKÜ Acting Rector Prof. Dr. Durmuş Acar and Vice Rector Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Dalgar. In his speech at the meeting, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Vahit Kirişçi gave special attention to an important project carried out by Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University in the field of livestock. He praised the Milk Cattle Breeding Enterprises Standards Certification Program, accredited by the Turkish Accreditation Agency (TÜRKAK) as the program owner, and announced that grant support would be provided to Milk Cattle Breeding Enterprises in Burdur within the scope of this program.

In his speech, Minister Kirişçi stated that it is important that MAKÜ received approval from TÜRKAK as a "nationally accreditable program"; "Since 40% of Burdur's economy is related to milk, we attach great importance to this. In this context, we initiated a joint study with our university, which has been accredited by TÜRKAK, this esteemed university of our Burdur. Within the framework of this study, we wanted to categorize milk cattle breeding enterprises as A, B, C, and what are the deficiencies determined by our university within the scope of this project? Because our goal is for all enterprises to be A-class enterprises. In other words, if it is C, we want it to move up to B, and if it is B, to A. But the work that our university will do will reveal this promotion. We provided our university with support of 5 million liras here. Within the framework of this 5 million lira support, with God's permission, we will see together how each of the enterprises with identified deficiencies will climb upwards." he said.

Within the scope of this project, announced to the sector for the first time by Minister Kirişçi; milk cattle breeding enterprises operating in our province will apply to the Provincial Directorate of Agriculture and Forestry to determine and certify quality standards. The enterprises that apply will be examined on-site by independent evaluator expert academicians within the framework of the MAKÜ certification program, and a report will be prepared about the enterprise. After the relevant enterprise is defined as A, B, C, or Candidate Farm in the prepared report, the structural deficiencies that need to be addressed to move up to a higher class will be identified. In line with the report to be prepared specifically for each enterprise, grant support of up to 80% will be provided by the Provincial Directorate of Agriculture and Forestry to raise the relevant enterprise to a higher class. The project aims to support the upgrading of the standards of each enterprise to higher classes and to bring all enterprises to the A-class enterprise level as much as possible.

The Milk Cattle Breeding Enterprises Certification project, which is just one of the many projects that MAKÜ has been working on for a long time, was accredited by TÜRKAK as a result of studies that have been ongoing for about three years. In addition to Milk Cattle Breeding, MAKÜ, which was accredited to issue the "Good Herd" certificate for small ruminant herds in recent months, has included this work directly in the support system of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, which is of great importance. This decision shows that a critical threshold has been reached in the livestock projects that MAKÜ has been carrying out with great dedication for 5 years and is a promising development in terms of reflecting other projects in state policies in the coming days.