Within the scope of pasture improvement, delimitation and allocation activities carried out with the support of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in Kars, the registered pasture area was increased from 320 thousand hectares to 418 thousand hectares in two years.
The Provincial Directorate of Agriculture and Forestry launched a comprehensive activity in 2024 to increase the pasture availability throughout the province, protect existing areas and strengthen the livestock infrastructure. In this context, the planning process for the identification, delimitation and allocation of pasture areas was carried out.
The teams started pasture improvement activities in 60 villages across the province and created shading areas in 57 villages so that animals can benefit from more suitable conditions during the summer months. During the resting process of the pastures, more than 250 tons of forage plant seeds were distributed to meet the feed needs of the producers.
Within the scope of the projects carried out with a financing of approximately 25 million lira, the teams carried out activities to increase pasture productivity and increased the registered pasture area from 320 thousand hectares to 418 thousand hectares.
The aim of the studies is to continue animal husbandry in Kars in a more efficient and sustainable manner.
"We carried out improvement activities in 60 villages"
Provincial Director of Agriculture and Forestry Enver Aydın told the AA correspondent that Kars is one of the important livestock centers of Türkiye with over 600 thousand cattle and over 1 million sheep.
Stating that they carry out activities to transfer large pasture and plateau areas to future generations more efficiently, Aydın said:
"We are carrying out our activities to transfer these pastures and productive plateaus, which have survived from the past to the present, to the future in a better, healthier and more efficient way. Within the scope of the pasture improvement projects, we carried out improvement activities in 60 villages throughout our province with a financing of over 25 million liras received from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. Of course, during this 2-year period, we also continued the activities of registering the registered, allocated and identified areas of pastures and plateaus in our province. Within this framework "We increased our registered pasture area from 320 thousand hectares to 418 thousand hectares during this process."
450 container houses were installed in villages and put into service for villagers and shepherds.
Aydın stated that by registering pastures and plateaus, they aim to eliminate the inefficiency in them, prevent damage caused by use and ensure that farmers engaged in animal husbandry benefit from these areas better, and stated that they continue their activities to transfer quality, productive and healthy pasture areas to future generations.
Emphasizing that activities are continuing to ensure that livestock producers have more productive pastures, Aydın said, "We developed the 'Breath for the Shepherd, Trust the Herd' project. In this context, we brought 450 container houses to 382 villages, to our province, and offered them to the service of our farmers and shepherds in our villages. In addition, we carried out drilling activities within the scope of our projects with the support of solar energy, to meet the water needs of our animals in the pastures and to meet their irrigation needs there. "We have accomplished the process of transporting it to long distances. We have also brought a pasture training center to our city." he said.
Headman of Dikme village, Orhan Yılmazel, stated that fertilization activities were carried out on approximately 3 thousand decares of land in their village and that there was a significant increase in pasture productivity after the application, and said, "There were dead zones in our pasture before, the plants were not growing, teams from the Provincial Directorate of Agriculture and Forestry came, they examined the clover and fertilized it, there is a 70 percent difference. For example, when an animal entered a pasture before, 10 days was enough, now 1 month is enough." he said.