Hatay Farmers Grow Heirloom Karakılçık Wheat Without Chemicals

The Buğday Association, an Istanbul-based ecological living NGO, built its Tohum Takas Ağı (Seed Exchange Network) in 2011 so small farmers could swap and multiply local seed varieties such as akkunduz wheat, Ottoman strawberry and pink tomato. Its first campaign funded 20 local varieties and lab-tested seed for disease, and by August 2014 had facilitated 169 sowings and exchanges across 26 farms. Today its Hatay restorative-agriculture project, started in December 2023, has grown karakılçık production from one farmer on 26 decares to 12 farmers on 100 decares, the first agroecological planting of this local durum wheat on the Amik Plain. The project began with 120 interested farmers and 33 producers have formed the Hatay Ecological Production Union.