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Press release…
ANKARA-
Şemsi Bayraktar, President of the Union of Turkish Agricultural Chambers (TZOB), made a video press statement regarding the recent spike in stubble fires.
“Stubble burning, which is done as a routine agricultural practice and causes serious damage to soil fertility in the long term, causes loss of productivity in agricultural lands,” Bayraktar said and continued his statement as follows;
“Stubble fire out of control causes the destruction of the labour of our farmers and endangers the future of our lands. All the labour of our farmers who want to harvest their crops, which they have cared for and grown for a year, is burnt to ashes with a spark.”
“The benefit of stubble burning is very small compared to the damage it will cause to the soil and the environment”
“If our producers are going to plant another crop on the same land after harvesting, they burn stubble in order to ensure that the drill is planted in a desired way, to save fuel and to prepare a better seed bed. The benefit of stubble burning is very small compared to the damage it will cause to the soil and the environment,” he warned.
Pointing out that burning stubble causes destruction of the natural and agricultural ecosystem, impoverishment of soils, which are already insufficient in organic matter and decrease in the water holding capacity of the soil, he added, “Stubble prevents rainfall from falling heavily on the soil; it reduces the surface runoff rate and allows it to seep into the soil.”
