Burdur 8th Agriculture and Livestock Fair opened its doors to visitors. The fair, which is colored with various competitions and events, is expected to be visited by 100 thousand people.
While all institutions and organizations in the city supported the fair held at Burdur Kapalı Pazar Yeri, farm equipment technologies for large and small animals, the latest innovations in the field of genetics, and developments in the feed sector were also showcased.
Burdur Governor Ali Arslantaş, Burdur Deputies Bayram Özçelik, Mehmet Göker, Burdur Mayor Ali Orkun Ercengiz, MAKÜ Acting Rector Prof. Dr. Durmuş Acar, Burdur Chamber of Agriculture President Kemal Kubilay, Burdur Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Yusuf Keyik, Burdur Commodity Exchange President Ömer Faruk Gündüzalp, union and chamber presidents, and citizens attended the fair.
The fair, which hosted 90 thousand people last year, is expected to be visited by 100 thousand people this year.
At the opening of the fair, Burdur Chamber of Agriculture President Kemal Kubilay, Commodity Exchange President Ömer Faruk Gündüzalp, Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Yusuf Keyik, Mayor Ali Orkun Ercengiz, MAKÜ Acting Rector Prof. Dr. Durmuş Acar, Burdur Deputies Bayram Özçelik, Mehmet Göker, and Governor Ali Arslantaş each gave a speech wishing the fair to be beneficial for Burdur and our country.
In his speech at the opening of the fair, MAKÜ Acting Rector Prof. Dr. Durmuş Acar said; “I wish the fair, which brings together all stakeholders of the livestock sector, one of the prominent sectors of Burdur, and offers our farmers the opportunity to see the developments, new methods, and technologies in the agriculture and livestock sector, to be beneficial for all our farmers in our region and our country. It is also very important that our university has undertaken a special mission to carry out studies aimed at the development of the sector in our province, where livestock activities are widely carried out. Our university, which has been selected as a specialized university in the field of livestock within the scope of the Regional Development-Oriented Mission Differentiation and Specialization Program by the Council of Higher Education and the Presidency Strategy and Budget Department, has been carrying out important projects in all dimensions of the sector for 5 years. As a university, we are carrying out over 40 projects ranging from livestock technologies to breeding, animal nutrition to farmer training, and the development of high value-added animal products to certification. We have reached a critical threshold in some of these projects, which are directed towards all layers of the sector with a broad perspective, providing concrete contributions.” he said.
Speaking about the projects carried out by the university, Acting Rector Acar said; “It is very pleasing for the livestock sector of our country, especially our province, that some of the projects we have carried to the point of providing concrete contributions to the sector have gradually started to become a part of the policies of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. Our university has established the first and only certification system in Turkey to evaluate whether livestock enterprises have the ideal standards they should have and has been accredited by TÜRKAK. In this context, our system for certifying dairy cattle enterprises, which we have been accredited by TÜRKAK as the program owner, was included in the support system of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in recent months, and Burdur was selected as the pilot province, with an initial budget of 5,000,000 TL allocated. With this project, which was recently announced to our breeders in Burdur by our Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Mr. Vahit Kirişçi, during his visit to our province, all dairy cattle enterprises in our province were evaluated by our university for compliance with standards and certified as A, B, C class, and candidate farms. Following this certification process, an 80% grant support will be provided for the elimination of deficiencies reported by our university and the upgrading of all enterprises to A class.
Our second important project, the mobile microscope and diagnostic system integrated into the mobile phone, has been included in the support scope under the smart solid agriculture category within the scope of the rural economic infrastructure investments support program of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry's rural development investments support program. Within the scope of this support, a 50% grant support will be provided to those who want to purchase the mobile microscope product. Thanks to this support, we expect the use of the mobile microscope, especially by veterinarians and farmers in the field, to spread rapidly. All patent and preference processes of this diagnostic system, which has the feature of being the first in the world as an integrated system, have been completed, and the mass production phase has been reached, and the after-sales support phase has also been planned. With this system, especially veterinarians providing mobile services in the field will be able to analyze blood, feces, or urine samples in places where animals are located in the most remote corners within a short time of 5 minutes and make an accurate diagnosis. We believe that this diagnostic system will make a significant contribution to preventing animal losses through the rapid and accurate diagnosis of many animal diseases, especially calf diseases.
Again, within the 5-year period, we have carried out a very important activity by reaching all the villages of Burdur and providing on-site training to thousands of breeders, raising their awareness. I would like to state that we are happy to contribute to breeders' more conscious livestock farming and thus increasing their incomes with these trainings held in all the halls we found empty in the villages until late in the evening. Lastly, I cannot pass without mentioning our HAYTEKFEST Livestock Technologies R&D and Innovation Festival event, which we held last month with the participation of hundreds of people from all over Turkey, which made a great impact nationwide. With this festival, we have taken an important step towards creating an ecosystem in this regard with the vision of making Burdur the center of livestock technologies. In addition to these few projects I mentioned, the work of over 40 important projects continues intensively. I sincerely thank approximately 250 academic colleagues who have shown great dedication in these studies for 5 years. I would like to state that we will continue to share other projects we have brought into service for the sector with our valuable breeders in our province in the upcoming period.” he said.
Certificates of appreciation were presented to the participants who supported the “Evim Yuvan Olsun” project by Governor Ali Arslantaş, and the opening ribbon of the fair was cut with the participation of the protocol.
After the speeches, the protocol members also visited the MAKÜ stand and received information from the project managers about the projects carried out by MAKÜ.
