The Leader Creative Participants Association hosted entrepreneurs who make a difference in agriculture with the “Entrepreneurship is Growing in Agriculture” summit.
Our summit, which took place at the Izmir Chamber of Commerce (IZTO), brought together names such as Dikili Sera TDIOSB Board of Directors Chairman Ali Osman Ogmen, Social Gastronomy Chef Ebru Baybara Demir, Communications Specialist-Journalist and Presenter Ozlem Dalga, Dikili TDIOSB Entrepreneurial Board Member Sener Kirikkaya, TETA Technical Agriculture and LAKTO Technology Agriculture 4.0 TED Chairman Sumer Tomek Bayindir, Izmir Chamber of Agricultural Engineers Chairman Hakan Cakici, Akhisar Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors Chairman Alper Alhat, Farmer and Entrepreneur Armagan Portakal, Pharmacist-Entrepreneur and Farmer Feyza Tevruz, Exporter-Entrepreneur Basak Mete and 2 Million Bees’ Flower Mother Cicek Ozyilmaz, who have achieved great success in agriculture with their initiatives.
‘The foundation of the national economy is agriculture. This is why we attach great importance to development in agriculture,’ said our Ataturk, and this year we continue to carry out projects that benefit society.
The opening speech of the program was made by Berkay Eskinazi, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Liyakat Association. Eskinazi said, “Women have an important place in rural development. We attach importance to women’s empowerment and self-development in rural areas. There should be entrepreneurship practices that will encourage women in this regard. Women should be supported by organizations such as cooperatives, and all institutions in the economy should cooperate for this. Women are becoming poor. This situation first negatively affects the family, then the society. There is a perception that women’s labor is considered cheap. It is in our hands to eliminate this painful perception.”
Eskinazi said, “In order to contribute to this, we aim to implement the ‘Let the Fields Bloom’ project. With this project, it will make significant contributions to destroy this painful picture with studies based on encouraging, supporting and developing investment opportunities for women’s entrepreneurship in rural areas, and implementing applicable entrepreneurial women farmer projects. We are ready to walk together with all individuals, organizations and chambers that want to support this project.”
Dikili Sera TDİOSB Board Chairman Ali Osman Öğmen:
“We need to grow entrepreneurship in agriculture. Why? Because our future is in agriculture. Because we need to leave our children a world where they can eat healthily and adequately.” Öğmen continued his words by saying, “Agriculture and all kinds of agricultural production should be our most important subject. We should talk about this every day. In fact, there are many different topics to talk about in agriculture. We should talk about many issues such as water problem, climate crisis, access to information, aging of the farmer population, sociological problems. However, what we talk about should not remain on the table. We should put what we talk about into practice.”
Social Gastronomy Chef Ebru Baybara Demir:
“Everyone talks about sustainability, but I don’t think sustainability is very convincing. The world needs to find a balance because we have disrupted the world’s balance. Producing on-site, consuming on-site, inviting people to consume on-site. This is where we should start. So we need to strengthen the local in agriculture.’’
Communication Expert, Journalist and Presenter Özlem Dalga:
“I produced digital business cards. Digital business cards are actually a way for you to prevent tree cutting, you protect nature. Big steps are not necessary, small steps are very valuable”
Dikili TDİOSB Entrepreneurial Board Member Şener Kırıkkaya:
“We want to make a production in Dikili TDİOSB where producers can get unlimited energy, not emit carbon, reuse water by recycling and earn money”
TETA Technical Agriculture General Manager- LAKTO Technology Founding Partner- Agriculture 4.0 TED President Sumer Tömek Bayındır: “A unit investment made in agriculture provides four times the employment of any industrial investment. Farmers are the most indomitable entrepreneurs who rise from the ashes every year. We should cultivate this dedication in our youth as well”
İzmir Chamber of Agriculture Engineers President Hakan Çakıcı:
“The basis of entrepreneurship is taking risks and foreseeing risks. Risk is high in agriculture, it is difficult to predict. Production planning has to be done. The world is now interconnected. We have to do industrial agriculture to compete with this”
Akhisar Chamber of Commerce Board President Alper Alhat :
“In order to attract young people to agriculture, we must first return to villages and agriculture. We must create projects that can be an example for them and integrate the lands. The most important thing is that industrial capital must now enter agriculture. The people who will spend money on agriculture are industrialists and managers. With these partnerships, we can do this job"
Farmer and Entrepreneur Armağan Portakal :
“Sustainability is important, but it does not mean that we all grow, I do not want to grow. When we weave micro networks horizontally, the vertical can stand. I have added art, design and productivity to agriculture. I am walking on such a path”
Pharmacist, Entrepreneur and Farmer Feyza Tevrüz :
“Entrepreneurship requires justice, courage, moderation and wisdom. I believe that an entrepreneur should have both theoretical knowledge and ancient knowledge. There are many resources on agriculture.