The harvest season has begun: Farmers are having difficulty finding workers to hire for over a thousand lira daily wages.

The harvest of tomatoes and onions that started in Kırıkkale was interrupted due to drought, leaving farmers disappointed. Farmers experiencing yield losses of up to 50% stated that despite offering daily wages exceeding 1,000 lira, they struggled to find workers.

Farmers in Kırıkkale began harvesting products such as potatoes, tomatoes, and onions. The drought in the region caused agricultural yields to drop by as much as 50%, while farmers also faced difficulties in finding workers. Farmers mentioned that even with daily wages offered above 1,000 lira, it has become nearly impossible to find laborers to work in the fields. They noted that due to insufficient rainfall, they couldn’t achieve the expected yields from their fields and expressed that if they couldn’t find workers, they would not be able to cultivate crops in the coming years.

“If this continues, we may not be able to plant in the coming years”
Farmer Ahmet Doğan, who farms in the Keskin district, said he had to sell the products he grew on his agricultural land at low prices. He stated that they sell paste tomatoes for 2 lira per kilogram and table tomatoes for 5 lira per kilogram, adding, “We sell onions and potatoes to intermediaries for 5 lira. We are struggling to find workers, and daily wages vary between 800 and 1,300 lira. If this continues, we may not be able to plant in the coming years.”

“If there was no drought, the yield would have been higher”
Mustafa Bostan expressed that they suffered serious yield losses due to the drought, saying, “Normally we would get 5 tons of product per decare, but this year we are around 2-3 tons. If there was no drought, the yield would have been higher, and perhaps our losses would have been less.”