WHY PRESERVE HERITAGE FRUITS? 

The importance of agricultural biodiversity has not yet been widely recognised in Turkey. Traditional cultivated varieties, which have been developed and nurtured by local people over the centuries are a legacy as precious as our wild plants:

While there are many non-governmental organisations (e.g. Doğa Derneği, Doğal Hayatı Koruma Derneği, Türkiye Tabiatını Koruma Derneği) engaged in the preservation of Turkey's wild plants, the preservation of our agricultural biodiversity is not yet a priority for either government institutions or non-governmental organisations.

For decades agricultural experts and horticulturalists have been engaged in developing improved fruit varieties, making use of traditional local fruits as genetic material. A number of horticultural institutes have large collections of these in their orchards. However, since their aim is not the preservation of these varieties, but the development of standard commercial varieties, in many cases even the original names and locations of these varieties have gone unrecorded. Consequently the local people whose horticultural skills originally produced these varieties are neither acknowledged nor rewarded. 

Heritage varieties reflect our rich cultural diversity. Their names alone are a fascinating store of folklore, humour and the descriptive power of language. The "Thieves Don't Steal" Melon (so-called after its deceptively unappealing appearance), the "Fox Chasing" Pear (which foxes are reputed to enjoy) are just two examples of many such interesting fruit names encountered all over Turkey.

Fruit varieties created by the labour and horticultural skills of local people over hundreds of years are today rapidly disappearing:  

Most wild plants have a wide distribution, only few being restricted to an isolated area, and what is more, so long as their habitat is not degraded are able to propagate themselves. Cultivated fruits and vegetables, on the other hand, are dependent for their survival on the human beings who plant, graft and tend them. Numerous heritage varieties now survive in only a single area, sometimes in a single garden. 

With the rapid expansion of tourism in Muğla over the past 20-30 years, land prices have soared. Increasingly, vineyards and orchards are being uprooted to make way for summer villas and hotels. This factor alone is one of the greatest threats faced by local fruit varieties.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs offers incentives to farmers who grow high yield commercial varieties (most of them introduced from abroad) rather than local varieties.

Of the 147 varieties of 16 fruit species listed in the Varieties Catalogue published in the year 2000 by Yalova Atatürk Horticultural Research Institute, just 46 are local varieties. (Yalova 2000).

The Agricultural Bank and other institutions only provide loans to fruit growers who cultivate certified varieties, a condition that applies to very few of our local varieties.

In his article entitled "Strategies for Encouraging the Use of Local Varieties in Turkey" (Karagöz, in press), Alptekin Karagöz of the Field Crop Research Institute stresses the importance of in situ conservation, which he says is "efficient, easy and relatively low-cost".

By preserving local varieties of fruit, which require significantly less input in terms of labour, irrigation, pesticides and fertilisers than standard commercial varieties, the dependence of villages on commercial varieties produced elsewhere is reduced. As well as preserving biodiversity and maintaining food security, this frees resources for other uses.

As local varieties are increasingly marginalised in the Turkish economy, our self-sufficiency is undermined, putting food security at risk. Today foreign hybrid seeds, fertilisers and pesticides constitute an increasingly high proportion of our import costs:

Varieties that have evolved in a particular area have adapted to the local climate, soil and precipitation level. They need minimal quantities of water and natural fertiliser to produce a crop, and are resistant to disease, frost and arid conditions. Since they need no pesticides, they are to a great extent organic.

Imported hybrid varieties, on the other hand, require larger quantities of water, fertiliser and pesticide, and when they are produced on a large scale and displace other varieties (monoculture), a single season of lower than average rainfall or disease can result in total crop failure.

The sale or reallocation of land belonging to government horticultural nurseries in recent years is cause for alarm. In 2003 eleven of these nurseries were closed down (www.tugem.gov.tr/tugemweb/uretmeistasyonlari. html 12.03.2007). Part of the 34,000 hectares of land belonging to the government-owned Dalaman Agricultural Office in Muğla was reallocated for tourism development on 6 January 2005. However, the Agricultural Workers Union and TEMA (Turkish Foundation for Combating Erosion, Reforestation and the Protection of Natural Habitats) took the matter to court, and the decision has been suspended (3 September 2007 Radikal newspaper). Two of the country's leading horticultural institutes, those based at Yalova near Istanbul and in the eastern province of Malatya, are threatened with relocation (Batal 2007:10).

According to figures released by the Turkish Agriculturalists Association, dependence on imports in the agricultural sector has doubled over the past 22 years. Agricultural imports rose from 2.3 billion dollars in 1982 to nearly 5 billion dollars in 1995, while agricultural exports have dropped to a fifth of their former level. www.aksam.com.tr/arsiv/aksam/2005/01/01/ekonomi/ekonomi9 .html 

At the Seeds and Life Forum held in Istanbul on 21-22 April 2007, one of the issues discussed was the fact that farmers are being made dependent on the hybrid seed industry, with the result that local varieties are rapidly disappearing. www.gidasanayii.net/modules.php?name=News &file= article&sid=12498

The hybrid and standard varieties that are being imposed in place of local varieties increase the consumption of water, fertiliser and pesticides, which in turn results in water pollution and soil degradation, and presents a serious threat to human health: 

Since local farmers are unacquainted with the fertiliser and pesticide needs of unfamiliar commercial varieties, and are inadequately informed on this subject, they tend to exceed recommended quantities, so aggravating degradation of the soil and pollution of water sources, as well as making the crop unfit for consumption. 

Traditionally farmers developed and grew a range of several traditional varieties that ripened at different times over the fruiting season and included good keeping varieties so that fresh fruit would be available throughout the year. The changeover to standard varieties and monoculture means that people in rural areas can no longer meet their own needs from their orchards, and moreover, makes it difficult and expensive to find the necessary labour to pick the fruit. 

Water sources are steadily diminishing, while excessive irrigation is resulting in salination of the soil. Excessive consumption of ground water is affecting the entire ecology, including fruit trees, and we can expect to face increasingly arid conditions and reduction in crop yields in the future. Experts forecast that Turkey will be a water-stressed country by the year 2030. (Burak S. 2005). 

Local fruit varieties are an important part of local culture, local identity and local cuisine:

When the same fruits and vegetables are grown everywhere, the unique flavours of local cuisines are lost. We all have the right to eat foods that have been grown under natural conditions and preserve local flavours. Similarly the farmers who developed these local varieties and continue to grow them have the right to receive a reasonable return for their labour. 

Every local variety has its own unique flavour, aroma and texture; and while some are eaten fresh, others may be cooked or preserved in various ways: some are made into bunches and hung in cellars or larders, some are dried and others are made into molasses (pekmez) or used in cooking. The loss of local varieties means the loss of preservation skills, and with it the local cuisine that depends on those products. Even if we record local recipes, they can not produce the same tastes with new hybrid varieties.

As the number of people engaged in agriculture drops in compliance with European Union objectives, fields and orchards are left untended. The younger generation, seeing no future in farming, joins the exodus to the cities, and the older generation has no one to pass on the knowledge of the techniques of grafting and caring for the trees. Chairman of İzmir Chamber of Agriculture, Sedat Köse, announced on World Farmers Day, 14 May 2007, that in the past two years 1,312,000 people had left the Turkish agricultural sector.
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