“Greenhouses have been in Turkey since the 1970's, but it was really just growing under glass with a drip irrigation system,” explained Yilmaz. “The modern hydroponic, high-tech system of growing didn't show up until around 1998.” Because of that, there are many things about greenhouse growing that Turkish growers aren't aware of. With a horticultural degree and experience as a grower, Yilmaz works for GreenQ advising growers in the area to help them expand their knowledge and get better yields. Sometimes, however, the global cultural difficulties towards change prove to be difficult.
“We're really trying to change minds,” said Yilmaz. “We experience hesitation all over the world because most growers have been growing their way for generations, so it is understandable they are not confident enough to try new ways of working they've never seen or experienced before.” As an example he pointed to the practice of starting a new crop with larger propagated plants. Because the climate in Turkey provides as much as four times the light levels seen in many European greenhouse operations, that energy can be harnessed to grow larger plants from the beginning of the growing season in September. However, conventional growing practices in Turkey have called for smaller plants, and Yilmaz thinks that's an example of growers not taking full advantage of their resources.
“For tomatoes we advise and train growers and plant nurseries to propagate and transplant larger plants with the first or second truss already flowering,” said Yilmaz. “I've given several seminars where I explained growers how this works and the desired effect this has. As mentioned before it proves to be difficult to introduce a new way of thinking. For example, the young plants nursery's thinks this costs too much energy for them, they do not have the space or facilities to do this or they have to scale up the price of the plant. On the other hand, I have advised some growers to transplant and propagate a bigger plant in a separate section of their greenhouse, before transplanting it to their substrate slabs. We are now experimenting with this."
The kind of reaction Yilmaz get from growers is not unique to the specific piece of advice or training. The response is typical whenever he tries to fill in a gap of knowledge, and because modern greenhouse practices are relatively new to Turkey, there are many gaps.
“In Turkey as well as in other countries we experience that growers “think twice” before accepting any new ways of working and thinking” said Yilmaz. “But this is normal human behaviour” “It is like a mental discussion where we try to show and convince the growers the possibilities and opportunities of new technologies and new knowledge which can help you.” He added that, though the process is slow, he's seeing progress in the adoption of new techniques. In fact, he's noticed that new greenhouse operations are getting bigger and more professional, which is a positive move because that kind of operation fits in more with GreenQ's practices.
“Besides consultancy GreenQ also provides trainings and seminars via its Education division. GreenQ is always looking to integrate new know how with local experiences. One of the ways to gather new know how is via the GreenQ Improvement Centre where we develop, test and demonstrate new growing concepts. Besides this we use the local useful and valuable experience from comparable climate conditions, for example Minnesota, USA where they have even higher temperatures in the summer than in Antalya. The experiences from the USA can then be implemented in Turkey.”
“Everything we do at GreenQ comes with calculations and precise numbers,” said Yilmaz. "We give the growers a scientific explanation for all of our advice, which in some cases, is a completely new experience for them. Most of the growers in Turkey, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan or Georgia do not have any consultants or specialists visiting their farms on a regular basis. Proper advice is always based on explaining why the actions help the growers and what the desired result is. This is something that growers in Turkey have to get used to as well, because they are forced to consider all their actions, they have to get comfortable with modern growing. It will take time, but eventually they will see that it all leads to a better crop, better yields, efficient sustainable growing and last but not least: higher revenue!"
For more information:GreenQ Turkey
Ibrahim Yilmaz
[email protected]
http://greenq.com.tr/tr/
http://www.greenq.nl/nl
skype: ibrahimyilmazturkey