Agriculture In Balıkesir

AGRICULTURE IN BALIKESIR
Balıkesir, Center of Agriculture
Balıkesir is an agricultural city with its geographical structure and climatic conditions. Balıkesir, where fertile agricultural lands are common, has the opportunity to easily market its agricultural products with its strategic location. When we look at the distribution of investments, it is seen that the dominant sector in terms of economic size is agriculture and animal husbandry with a rate of 64%.

Among the province's agricultural lands, field areas constitute the largest area with approximately 300,000 hectares, followed by olive groves with 82,000 hectares. For agricultural activities, 7 dams and 22 ponds serve for irrigation purposes, and the construction of 7 ponds continues.

Drying facilities to be established in order to extend the shelf life of medicinal aromatic plants and improve their marketing opportunities stand out as an important investment opportunity. Edremit, Havran, İvrindi, Dursunbey, Bigadiç, Sındırgı and Marmara Island are the prominent districts in the production of medicinal aromatic plants.

Balıkesir has developed in forestry activities as well as agriculture and animal husbandry activities. Provincial forests are spread over an area of ​​625,000 hectares. In forest areas; There are larch, red pine, beech, hornbeam, oak, willow, tamarisk and plane trees.

Balıkesir diversifies its fields of activity in ornamental plant cultivation and agricultural production. Being among the dynamic provinces in bulb cultivation, Balıkesir ranks 2nd in bulb production in Turkey.

In greenhouse cultivation activities in Balıkesir; A wide variety of production is carried out, especially lettuce, cucumber and tomato. In the province, especially the greenhouse production in high tunnels and plastic greenhouses draws attention. The fact that the temperature and flow rate of geothermal water resources in the province have suitable criteria for greenhouse activities has been effective in directing sector investments to this area. The existing rich geothermal resources of the province increase the attractiveness of the investment environment by reducing the heating costs.

Balıkesir is among the leading provinces in animal product production. In the province, which is very rich in feed, which is an important cost for the livestock sector, more than 1.750.000 tons of feed is produced annually.

3.4% of Turkey's cattle stock is located in the province. There are approximately 500,000 cattle, of which the largest share belongs to cattle. The province has 2.2% of the sheep and goats in Turkey. There are 177,000 sheep (merino), 604,000 sheep (domestic), 196,000 goats (hair) in Balıkesir. With these figures, there are approximately 1,000,000 sheep and goats in the province.

The land of 1,445,000 hectares owned by Balıkesir; 625,000 hectares of forest area, 413,000 hectares of agricultural land, 325,000 hectares of non-agricultural land, 82,000 hectares of meadow and pasture land.

A wide variety of fruits and vegetables are produced in Balıkesir. The products grown directly meet the demands of the metropolises. The biggest share in fruit production rates belongs to olive and hard-shelled fruits with 55%. Especially Ayvalık, Gömeç, Burhaniye, Edremit, Havran, Erdek and Bandırma are the most important olive and olive oil production centers of Turkey.

Balikesir's climatic conditions, irrigation opportunities and long harvest time provide advantages for seed cultivation. In general, 90 different types of standard vegetable seeds are produced in the province, mainly tomato, pepper, eggplant, cress, arugula, dill, parsley, melon and onion.

Poultry production is an important branch of activity in the province. Approximately 12% of the broilers produced in Turkey are obtained from the province. Balıkesir is the 3rd in Turkey in terms of broilers. Turkey's leading white meat companies prefer Balıkesir for their investments. The proximity of Balıkesir to major consumption centers is effective in the development of poultry activities. The province, which contains about 7% of the laying hens, is the 4th in Turkey in terms of laying hens.

Beekeeping activities carried out intensively in Balıkesir; It has also been effective in the development of beekeeping by-products such as beeswax, pollen, propolis and royal jelly.

Balıkesir, which has coasts to both Marmara and Aegean Seas, is also very rich in terms of fish diversity.

Turkey is one of the leading countries in olive oil exports, and Balıkesir, which has more than 15 million trees, makes a significant part of this export. Along with olive oil and flower oil enterprises in the province, fruit and vegetable processing, flour and feed factories have a large share in exports.