Rains in a week may ‘save agricultural production’

Though the drought experienced throughout the country since last October has started to threaten agricultural production by "exceeding critical limits one by one," the possibility of compensation will continue if it rains in a week, sector representatives say.

While the lack of precipitation, which causes insufficient seed development, increases the risk of disease in the plants in some regions, the dam waters have decreased to the lowest levels in recent years in the regions that have not received sufficient precipitation since October.

However, sector representatives estimate that the problems experienced in yield can be limited with the rains in a week supporting the recovery and then the spring rains being sufficient.

"The seed, which remained in a form between dry and wet, has reached the stage of deterioration. We are waiting for the rain this week or there will be trouble," said Süleyman İskenderoğlu, the head of the chamber of agriculture in the southeastern province of Diyarbarkır's Yenişehir district.

Rainfalls expected over the next week and in spring have become very important as land controls carried out in the fields planted with cereals do not give promising results, according to Durmuş Üner, the head of the chamber of agriculture in the central Anatolian province of Konya's Karapınar district.

Separately, the western province of Uşak is among the cities that feel the drought the most, according to the city's chamber of agriculture head Nafiz Mıdık, warning that serious troubles wait for agricultural production.

In his part, Hasan Şen, the head of the chamber of agriculture in the Keşan district of Edirne, the city that has not had rain since last October, pointed out that high temperatures increase the...