Improved pastures in Kars have been put into economic use.

The improved pasture in Kars was put into economy. The idle pasture of 500 decares in the rural area of Kars was opened for grazing of large and small livestock.

Within the scope of the ‘Pasture Rehabilitation and Management Project’ by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, work was carried out to put the idle land in Ani Village into the economy. Initially, a 500-decare area was cleared of foreign and invasive weeds, such as rabbitfoot clover, and planted with vetch seeds.

The ceremony held in Ani village pasture started with a moment of silence and the national anthem. The opening speech of the ceremony was delivered by the Director of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Enver Aydın.

Following Aydın’s speech, Member of Parliament Adem Çalkın, emphasizing that Kars has very extensive pastures and organic feeding for animals, stated, ‘Our Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is doing great work. Sometimes there are outbreak diseases in animals, issues related to animal breeding, monitoring of animals closely, concerns of farmers about rainfall, hail, harvest time, and other times. In other words, they say the farmer’s office is a friend in need, but I say the friend in need of the farmer is the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. May God bless you, your efforts are immense, I thank you all.’

Governor Ziya Polat, expressing that we must produce for this nation, for this state, and as we produce, we will strengthen, said, ‘As we strengthen, our nation, which is the leader of the oppressed, will bring justice to this world. Therefore, all of us together, you in the field, our NGOs, our village headmen, we will work together with the people in the field of all institutions of the state, we will produce, produce, produce. We need to sell what we produce at a good price, and in order to sell at a good price, we need to grow good products. We need to turn raw materials into products. We need to see the products we harvest in the fields, the carcass meat of our animals on the shelves. I recently visited one of our factories. Thanks to God, carcass meat, Kars sucuk, Kars kavurma have started to take their place on the shelves, and there are many factories that have invested and we will soon inaugurate. We expect this from our farmer brothers; our barley and wheat are famous. However, a fellow villager from the village before complained to me about the combine harvester. Combines are very expensive, and we buy straw. We have another job to do here. We should support the production of fodder crops such as vetch, clover, sainfoin, and silage corn for people who feed animals. We need to feed them these instead of straw, we need to reduce costs and increase both meat and milk yields of the animals. Straw will have to be fed out of necessity. But unfortunately, we probably give straw to the combine harvester in return for straw. The combine harvester harvests, we give our grass and wheat, and we buy straw. We will hopefully increase the production of vetch, clover, and silage corn with the contribution of our state in the coming years.’

After the speeches, the animals were released into the pasture. In Kars, the ‘Pasture Rehabilitation and Management Projects’ actively carried out in an area of 2,400 decares in 2024 with a cost of 5,790,910.45 TL is bringing smiles to the faces of farmers.

Within the scope of the pasture rehabilitation and management project with a cost of 2,959,800.00 TL in Ani village, three different rehabilitation methods were applied in the rehabilitation of the pasture, which was mostly covered with an invasive foreign weed, rabbitfoot clover.