Barilla Shared Sustainable Agriculture Practices at the 5th Food Banking Summit

While one third of the food produced in the world is wasted, the demand for food is increasing rapidly. Deficiencies in agricultural practices and climate change continue to threaten the sustainability of grain production. The Food Banking Summit, organized for the 5th time by the Basic Needs Association (TİDER) with the theme of “Be a Part of the Fight Against Waste”, addressed food waste and problems with fair access to food, as well as possible solutions.

The importance of combating waste was highlighted in the event, which was also supported by Barilla Türkiye. Speaking at the session titled “Preventing Losses and Waste in the Food and Agriculture Value Chain”, moderated by agricultural writer Mine Ataman, Barilla Food Purchasing and Logistics Senior Manager Aytaç Köksal, shared sustainable agricultural practices with the participants, specifically regarding wheat.

In his speech, Aytaç Köksal stated that Barilla has been doing contract farming in Türkiye for over 30 years, and drew attention to the fact that waste starts before the seed is sown in the field, and emphasized that every stage of correct agricultural practices should be planned and the entire process should be carried out with a scientific approach. Stating that Barilla has been combining contract farming practices with sustainable agriculture in Türkiye for the last 10 years, Köksal“We are in cooperation with universities, institutes, academics and agricultural engineers in both Thrace and Southeastern Anatolia. The system we have implemented increases agricultural productivity while also optimizing resource use,” he said.

Drawing attention to the savings provided by scientific agricultural methods Aytac Koksal“In Türkiye, 7 million hectares of wheat are planted annually and an average of 300 kilos of wheat seeds are sown per hectare. With scientific methods, a 15-20 percent improvement can be achieved in these rates. This corresponds to 300-400 thousand tons of wheat. If we consider that a person consumes 150-160 kilos of wheat annually, we are losing the annual wheat needs of 2,5 million people at the seed stage. We can reverse this,” he explained.

Emphasizing that Barilla attaches importance to regional planning in agricultural production policies, Köksal drew attention to the fact that the public, private sector and farmer organizations should act together for a sustainable agricultural ecosystem and said: “Our water resources are decreasing, soil fertility is under threat. Our farmers need annual planning. In this planning, detailed studies should be carried out from when to rest the soil to when and with which methods to plant which crop. We should bring science to the field. As Barilla, we have traditional and scientific methods of planting in the same field. We undertake that if the traditional method yields more efficient results, we will cover the economic loss. Based in Şanlıurfa and Mardin in the Southeastern Anatolia Region, Konya in the Central Anatolia Region, Tekirdağ and Kırklareli in Thrace, we produced durum wheat with a comprehensive program ranging from training to financial support for small farmers in cooperation and consultancy with the academic institutions of the relevant regions. Thanks to this integrated model we created, we increased agricultural productivity by 13 percent and reduced carbon emissions by almost 30 percent.”

At the summit, where TİDER's 15th anniversary was also celebrated, details of the "More Than Food" campaign launched by the Global Food Banking network were also shared. At the summit, "Food Sustainability and Consumer Habits", "Transformation Stars", "Projects for Street Animals" and "Humane Economic Growth and Measures Against Poverty" were discussed.

Source: HORECA TREND and Barilla