Miller Magazine Issue: 112 April 2019

92 INTERVIEW APRIL 2019 2 kinds of cotton, 2 olive and olive oils, and 1 nut. Cereal: 3.275.827 tons and 63 companies. Cotton: 37.000 tons and 2 companies. Olive: 13.500 tons and 1 company. Nut: 17.000 tons and 1 company. TMO also provides humanitarian aid abroad under the decision of the Council of Ministers. Could you please tell us about these aids? TMO is tasked to provide flour to needy countries because of natural disaster, drought, war, and internal strife as the Council of Ministers mandated use in different times since 2005. In this context; between the years of 2005 and 2019, 324 thousand tons of flour equivalent to 432 thousand tons of wheat was provided by TMO to Pakistan, Palestine, Somalia, Yemen, and Syria. In 2016, 2,000 tons of rice equivalent to 3.506 tons of paddy was provided to Palestine. As of 2019, a supply tender for grant flour of 22,000 tons equivalent to 31 thousand tons of wheat was made for Syria and flour grant to the country is going on. PULSES: A SOURCE OF PROTEIN FOR 2 BILLION PEOPLE You said that you wanted to increase the consumption of pulses. Why do you want to do this? Pulses are a source of protein for more than two billion pe- ople. This is an important figure. This amounts to one quar- ter of the world’s population. That’s why pulses are important nutrition for countries that cannot have access to other protein sources. In the context of nutritional value, it provides a protein equ- ivalent to meat products. You can have 15-20 percent of your daily energy need from pulses. In addition to this, pulses have critical importance for health. Experts recommend consuming pulses at least 2 times a week to combat obesity, diabetes, and some chronic diseases. According to FAO data, pulses that are produced around 90- 95 million tons in the world use less water, bind free nitrogen in the air to the soil which increases the efficiency of soil, mitigate the climate change by having less carbon footprint, and enab- les the sustainability of agriculture. Pulses processing capacity of our country, which is the gene center of pulses, is very high. Our country has high production in terms of ecologic conditions and advanced technology and can cultivate pulses in every region because of the geographic condition. Following cereals, the field crops come in the second place in terms of cultivation area.