THE GLOBAL WINDOW OF TURKISH FOOD AND AGRICULTURE The Global Window of Turkish Food and Agriculture Sector
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August 2026…
The “TÜME Agricultural Route Programme” was organized in Tokat…
The Agricultural Technologies Cluster (TÜME) organized the “TÜME Agricultural Route Programme” in Tokat province…
TOKAT…
At the event held in the city centre of Tokat, the Rector of the National Defence University, Professor Dr. Erhan Afyoncu and the Chairman of the TÜME Board of Directors, Abdulkadir Karagöz, participated in a discussion focusing on agricultural transformation and technology.
In his speech, Karagöz stated that in this age of technology, production methodologies are also updating themselves in many parametres.
Pointing out that approximately 20-23 million tonnes of wheat are produced annually in Türkiye, Karagöz said, “In other words, out of our 77 million hectares of land area, roughly 23 million hectares are arable agricultural land and we cultivate grains on 6,5 – 7 million hectares of it. Therefore, we are still a huge grain-producing country. We continue to produce agricultural crops that were produced 200 years ago, perhaps even 1000 years ago. Even though time progresses, our habits change, we have moved from push-button phones to computers and digital systems have entered our lives intensely, at the end of the day, we still produce 90-95 percent of the wheat, meat, fruits and vegetables that humanity consumed 1000 years ago, 10,000 years ago.”
Drawing attention to the fact that the world is heading towards autonomous models based on artificial intelligence, Karagöz emphasized that this should also be done in agriculture.
“We will also develop autonomous farming technologies with the TEKNOFEST generation.”
Underlining that similar developments can occur in agriculture as in the defense industry in the last 10-15 years thanks to Turkish engineers, Karagöz continued:
“If a few engineers believed in it 10 or 15 years ago and they developed these technologies themselves and actually reached the point the world is reaching even before the world and if they, together with the TEKNOFEST generation and Deneyap (Try and do) Workshops, travelled from city to city and convinced our people and young people that these technologies can be developed, creating a revolution of self-confidence and who created this? Who is the big brother of TEKNOFEST? Selçuk Bayraktar. Just as this revolution of self-confidence occurred in the defense industry and if we are proud of it today, if we have significantly reduced our dependence on foreign countries, if a body of expertise has been created in technology development, if a human resource has been formed and most importantly, if the self-confidence of ‘We can do this perfectly’ has been created, then today it is spreading like a wave…”
“If young people in Anatolia are saying, ‘I will also build autonomous systems, I will also build drones, I will also develop missiles in the defense industry,’ and participating in competitions and if this is spreading like a wave, then today we are saying that we will also develop the technologies of AI-based autonomous farming with our Turkish engineers. We will develop it with the TEKNOFEST generation,” he added…
