HARVEST OF 'WHITE GOLD' STARTS IN ŞANLIURFA REGION...

Cotton, known as 'White gold', largely produced in Şanlıurfa, began to be harvested in GAP (Southeastern Anatolia Project) region

In Şanlıurfa, Turkey's most important centers of agricultural production, agricultural production in parallel with the increase in irrigated acreage under the GAP Action Plan also quadruples. In this context, the planting area is expanding every year and the region is called 'White gold' cotton, fiber with textiles, raw materials to the oil industry, and the livestock sector with the raw material is one of the leading strategic products.

It provides the advantage in textiles in Turkey's contribution to world cotton offering to have a say began a new harvest.

Farmers, who planted 'White gold' in their fields, hope to have a fertile harvest season from the crops they water and maintain, despite the scorching heat during the summer.

Although mechanization in agriculture is rapidly developing, some farmers have to harvest manually for various reasons. The first light of the morning, the workers who keep their way to the fields, the sun under the tough work continues until sunset. While working in the cotton picking business for about two months they contribute to family budgets.

"Production takes place on 285 thousand hectares"

Harran University (HRU) Faculty of Agriculture, Assoc. Dr. Osman Çopur, said in a statement to reporters, 'White gold' first comes to mind in Şanlıurfa.

Çopur, drawing attention to the increase in cotton cultivation areas in the province every year, said, "This year, cotton production is carried out on an area of ​​285 thousand hectares in Şanlıurfa."

"During cotton planting period, some problems occurred due to long-lasting rainfall, farmers handled in a healthy way to apply farming techniques," he noted.

Çopur stated that the producers who use agricultural techniques will get higher yields from their fields.

"Under normal conditions, manual harvesting starts in our region as of September 15. In recent years, machine harvesting has become quite common and developed. After opening 60-70 percent of cocooning, the leaf-dropper must be used. Farmers who harvest cotton by hand should not make use of nylon sacks which is already forbidden. Seed cotton should not be collected in a moist way. It can cause problems especially in storage and ginning, the products of our farmers who pay attention to this issue will not lose quality," he concluded...