The Mediterranean Region Stakeholder Meeting of the "Identification of Nitrate Sensitive Areas and Preparation of Action Plans" Project was held in Adana on 25 March 2022 with the participation of experts from provincial and district directorates of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, farmers' unions, chambers of agriculture, non-governmental organizations and private sector representatives.
In the agenda of the meeting, presentations were made on "Control and Management of Agricultural Pollution" by Yusuf Gürbüz, MAF GDAR Working Group Officer, "Identification of Nitrate Sensitive Regions" by Dr. Cihangir Aydöner on behalf of the TÜBİTAK MAM Project Team, "Preparation of Nitrate Action Plans and Benefit-Cost Analysis" by Prof. Dr. Levent Başayiğit from Isparta University of Applied Sciences and Prof. Dr. Haydar Şengül from Çukurova University. Finally, the findings of Seyhan, Ceyhan, Eastern Mediterranean and Asi Basins were shared with the participants by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mahmut Dingil, who carried out project studies in the region.
Prof. Dr. Burcu Özsoy, Vice President of TÜBİTAK MAM Climate Change and Sustainability Vice Presidency, stated that a special method was developed for the purpose of identifying nitrate sensitive areas in surface and groundwater and that this method was applied in 25 basins. Prof. Dr. Burcu Özsoy said, "The project outputs obtained in 25 basins are shared with stakeholders at these meetings. In the current century, soil and water are recognized as the most important strategic materials. Increasing environmental problems also restrict the use of usable water. The increasing world population and the parallel increase in water demand necessitates the sustainable use of water resources. The wastewater of settlements and industrial zones carries nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon to surface waters and these substances disrupt the ecological structure of water basins."
The speakers stated that the identification and control of diffuse pollutants, which have a great impact on pollution, is extremely important for the improvement and protection of the quality of water resources, and that the widespread agricultural and livestock activities in our country increases the necessity of taking these pollutants into account. In this context, it was stated that very important studies are carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to protect our water resources against agricultural pollution.
During the meeting, stakeholders from Adana, Hatay, Kahramanmaraş, Gaziantep, Osmaniye and Aksaray were informed about agricultural pollution, nitrate sensitive areas and nitrate action plans by academics from TÜBİTAK, Isparta Applied Sciences, Çukurova and Harran Universities.
The project, supported by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MoAF), General Directorate of Agricultural Reform (GDAR) and implemented by TÜBİTAK Marmara Research Center (MAM), started in 2018 and will be completed in June 2022. In the project, determination of Nitrate Sensitive Areas, which are defined as areas that are contaminated in terms of nitrate and/or likely to be contaminated in the near future, implementation of region-specific selected measures in these regions according to the "Good Agricultural Practice Code" document given in the annex of the communiqué, and cost-benefit analysis of the measures to be implemented were carried out.
