Miller Magazine Issue: 115 July 2019

65 INTERVIEW MILLER / JULY 2019 Ata Tohumculuk, one of the first and leading compa- nies of Turkish seed sector, has been serving Turkish farmers for more than 25 years. Ata Tohumculuk was incorporated in Polatli, Ankara as a family company in 1993 and has become a crucial player in seed sector with its strong and dynamic structure. Ayhan Atalay, the Chairman of Board of the company, underlines that the seed sector is the base of farming and it has a strategic importance in terms of food security and their aim is to offer more productive strains for Turk- ish farmers. His company has been using the same technology with most Western firms do and they have a substantial research and development investment in international scale, Atalay told the Miller Magazine. Ata Tohumculuk launched the largest grain seed plant of Turkey in Polatli in 2011 and it is a leading firm all over Turkey with breeding plantations and number of varieties. Seed varieties developed by the company is being used in many regions of Turkey. Ayhan Atalay, Chairman of Board of Ata Tohumcu- luk, gave an interview to the Miller Magazine during Grain Suppliers Association (HUBUDER) Confer- ence. Mr. Atalay, would you please give us brief infor- mation about you and your company? Ata Tohumculuk produces seeds. I have been work- ing for the seed sector for many years. I had served as a deputy president of the Seed Industrialists and Producers Sub-Association (TSÜAB) for 5 terms. We follow grain markets closely. Ata Tohumculuk produc- es grain seeds and it is also a research and develop- ment company. We have a breeding department. We are among leading private companies in Turkey. We breed wheat and barley, we cooperate with The Sci- entific and Technological Research Council of Turkey. We have a greenhouse for fast-track breeding. We also have a marker laboratory. We can launch several varieties per year. We are well aware of conditions of the country. The seed sector has been changing and new varieties are needed for each climatic envi- ronment and soil structure. Now, the sector concen- trates of this issue. We are a leading company in the seed sector since 1993. Is it true that farmers could not afford to buy seeds and therefore they back tracked from pro- duction? Yes, I agree with this. Farmers can find seeds in the market but they can hardly afford to buy. This is also the fact for the fertilizers. When we compare with 2018 figures, production of wheat seeds have substantially dropped. Fertilizer consumption has also decreased. I think, those will affect the yield and quality negatively during the harvest season. Seed production has definitely a cost. And all farm- ers can not afford to bear that cost. Therefore prod- ucts that need cheaper inputs have become more popular among farmers. As a result, barley produc- tion increased since it needs much less investment for fertilizers and the like. Anatolian farmers have be- gan to apply summer planting. Chickpea planting has increased although it was not profitable last year. This is a direct result of increased input costs. Farmers use a little amount of fertilizers for chickpeas, if they do. The problem is with the financial situation of farm- ers. If they had enough money and prices became affordable, fertilizer usage would increase. This was the case in 2016. VAT of 18% was not enforced that year and it was the record breaking year for fertilizer usage in Turkey with 6 million tons. When we com- pare 2016 with 2018, we figure out a decrease of 1,5 million tons. The most used fertilizer in the Central Anatolian Region of Turkey is DAP and its consump- tion decreased by 53 percent. When we compare all fertilizers, the loss is nearly 30 percent. In 2019, we expect a further 10 percent decrease in fertilizer us- age. Do you expect a quality issue for the wheat as a result? Yes, I have concerns about protein content and quality for the wheat. Because rainfall is very high in some regions. For example in Çukurova region, 1000 mm rainfall is the case. The average rainfall for this region is 550 mm. Also, the average rainfall for the re- gion within the Southeastern Anatolian Project (GAP) is 250-300 mm. However it is close to 700 mm this year. As a result of increased rainfall, wheat plant- ing was not possible in some regions and there were problems where planting was done. There are con- cerns with even barley production in that region. The only geographical region with suitable weather conditions in Turkey is the Marmara region. Rainfall was not enough there but after that strong precip- itation prevented negative effects. Cultivation areas have not decreased in this region. However, Çuku- rova and GAP region have problems with increased precipitation. On the other hand, Central Anatolian Region has problems because of decreased rainfall. Wheat cultivation areas in Turkey is 7,6 million hec- tares in average. But we expect that this will drop