The Workshop, which was held for the 6th time this year; Former Minister of Forestry and Water Affairs and Deputy Veysel Eroğlu, Deputies Ali Özkaya and İbrahim Yurdunuseven, Afyonkarahisar Governor Gökmen Çiçek, Mayor Mehmet Zeybek, Afyon Kocatepe University (AKU) Rector Mehmet Karakaş, Afyonkarahisar Health Sciences University (AFSU) Rector Nurullah Okumuş, expert academicians, industry representatives, business people, bureaucrats and members of the press.

 

In his speech at the workshop, Afyonkarahisar Governor Gökmen Çiçek pointed out that a different working model was developed throughout the province; “I call it the Opium model. We strictly follow the road map we have determined with our deputies, and we work together in the villages and mountains. With the same model, we started a study on Medicinal Aromatic Plants and formed a commission,” he said, adding that they will continue to work with all components of the subject.

 

He gave the good news that the stock market will be established

 

Former Minister of Forestry and Water Affairs and Deputy Veysel Eroğlu, in his speech drawing attention to climate change in the world; Stating that irrigated agriculture in the region should be replaced by the planting and planting of products that do not require water, he underlined that they will give all kinds of support to the initiatives to be made in this regard. Stating that turning to medicinal and aromatic plants would be an important and correct step in this respect, Eroğlu gave the good news that they will start working on the establishment of the Medicinal Aromatic Plants Exchange. It was evaluated that Eroğlu's statements regarding the practices and incentives planned for the transition to waterless agriculture through medicinal and aromatic plants were promising and encouraging for the producers.

 

After the speeches; Sessions were held on different topics such as Turkey's Potential of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Turkey's Rich Diversity of Medicinal Aromatic Plants and the Strategy for Developing Products with High Commercial Value, Production Processes of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants.

 

“The workshop was very useful and promising”

 

Hikmet Uğurluoğlu, one of the owners of Uğurluoğlu Herbal Oil Food Cosmetics Import Export Limited Company, representing Akşehir at the workshop; He said that they were very pleased on behalf of their company and Akşehir to be invited to such a workshop, which was very beneficial in terms of medicinal and aromatic plant agriculture and was promising for the future. Hikmet Uğurluoğlu gave the following statements in his evaluation on the subject:

 

“Due to the fact that we produce oil from medicinal and aromatic plants and provide raw materials to the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry, the administrators of our universities visit our factory from time to time and we consult about the sector. As it is known, 14 percent of irrigated agriculture is carried out in our province, which has about 6 percent of water resources, and this negatively affects our water resources. The planting of these plants also has an important contribution to the transition to waterless agriculture, especially in Konya.