Promoting Resilience through Improved Livelihoods Project Closing Meeting Was Held in Ankara

The closing meeting was attended by representatives of relevant public institutions as well as the project team and the project beneficiaries, producers. The opening speeches of the meeting were delivered by FAO Deputy Representative to Turkey Ayşegül Selışık, Stefano Fantaroni, Head of Political Affairs Section of the Delegation of the European Union to Turkey, Ali Aybey, Director General of International Labour Force of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, and Ferhat Çolak, Director General of European Union and Foreign Relations of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

In his speech, Director General Ali Aybey pointed out the relationship between migration and agricultural employment and stated that the increase in rural-urban migration has reduced employment in the agricultural sector over the years. Drawing attention to the importance of the agricultural sector, our Director General stated that it is important to meet the labour deficit in agriculture primarily from the domestic workforce, but in cases where it cannot be met with the domestic workforce, work permits or work permit exemptions are issued to make complementary use of foreign labor.

In his speech, Ferhat Çolak, Director General for European Union and Foreign Relations of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, pointed out that the Ministry aims to advance sustainable development goals with an environmentally sensitive and innovative approach and stated that they continue their work with the vision of building a strong future in the agricultural sector.

In her speech, FAO Turkey Deputy Representative Ayşegül Selışık stated that women are not only a target group in this project, but also active leaders in development processes, modern agricultural techniques and sustainable production methods have been introduced to farmers through applied farmer schools, and by supporting this practice with the digital platform, they have contributed to increasing the productivity and income level of approximately 3 thousand farmers.

The meeting ended with a visit to the stand area where the project outputs were exhibited and the photo exhibition.