IFAJ Panel Features in Türkiye Guild’s Seventh Press Tour

IFAJ members from the United Kingdom and Romania were in the spotlight at the inaugural edition of Growmach, the latest addition to Türkiye’s swelling portfolio of agricultural fairs.

Attendance at the new show – designed to act as an international gateway for the Turkish agricultural machinery sector – was the centrepiece of a press tour to Antalya hosted by TAGYAD, the IFAJ member guild in Türkiye, and sponsored by Informa Markets, Growmach show organisers.

Nicoleta Dragomir, chair of the Romanian guild APAR; and Adrian Bell, IFAJ Treasurer, were invited to participate in a panel discussion during the show’s International Press Preview Day.

Convened and chaired by İsmail Ugural, TAGYAD chair, the IFAJ trio discussed the changes and shifts in agricultural machinery applications, particularly in respect of the changes to machinery use and practices that climate change might necessitate or require.

Adrian and Nicoleta also pointed out how agricultural journalists and communicators played a valuable role in mobilising this knowledge and information, bringing it to farmers, advisers, policymakers and the wider public. IFAJ’s global function in supporting agricultural journalism, and raising awareness of its importance in advancing agricultural practices and understanding, were also addressed during the event.

An IFAJ member since 2015, the trip to Antalya was the seventh IFAJ event to be organised by the Turkish guild. Usually centred around a show–in previous years, members have attended Growtech, Animal Antalya and DLG’s Tarla Gunlieri field days–the trips also take in visits to local farms and agricultural institutions.

With Antalya home to 70,000 ha of greenhouses, among the attractions this year was TS Tarim, an advanced plant propagation facility turning out more than 30 million microplug plants annually. While its focus is on export to the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, the company is also heavily engaged in research around tropical crops like banana, pineapple and coffee, all potentially at risk from climate change.

Of course, such innovative greenhouse facilities need similarly innovative lighting technologies: another visit took the group to Fiberli, an LED lighting company that entered the horticultural market just five years ago. Now far more than just a lighting supplier, the company runs its own greenhouses to test light efficiency, wavelengths and intensities, has its own bee colonies to facilitate pollination, and is now experimenting with combinations of light and CO₂  concentrations to influence the ripening of tomatoes.

Members from the guilds of Austria, Bulgaria, Georgia, Hungary, Iraq, Japan, Slovenia and Ukraine took part in October’s events.