Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Agriculture in Turkey

We've seen a variety of agricultural areas on the trip so far.  Around Kayseri there are small, irregular sized grain fields, and a variety of vegetables.  On the way toward Cappadocia, we saw an increasing number of orchards (primarily apricot, but also cherry).  As we passed out of Cappadocia toward Ankara it felt like we were back home in Kansas again.  Flat plains and large wheat fields that were being harvested.  In the Izmir region on the coast it is much more humid, they have olives, peach trees, citrus trees, corn and cotton, although with the decline in world market prices they are growing less cotton than they used to.  

Many farmers do not live on the small plots of land where they farm, but live in a central village and go out into the fields to work them.  There has been an effort in recent years to "consolidate" smaller farms that have been divided among children for generations.  This has made agriculture less efficient, so they are trying to prevent further divisions of the land at this point.

On the drive between Kayseri and Cappadocia, we saw lots of piles of rocks along the edges of the fields.  Apparently the soil there is very rocky.


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