Tech incubator aims to refresh Turkish farming

Pexels/Betül Şimşek

• Supporting farm tech startups
• Irrigation and transport
• Money remains a concern

The average age of a Turkish farmer is more than 58, according to data from the Union of Chambers of Agriculture of Türkiye, a problem aggravated by the rising tide of young Turks abandoning rural life for the big cities. 

The İzmir Agricultural Technology Centre (İTTM), based in Turkey’s western Aegean region, aims to change that. It is an incubator for tech startups working to find solutions to the challenges faced by Turkish farmers and the downstream links between farm and table.

İTTM’s vision includes improved water usage, streamlined logistics chains and robots harvesting crops. Although it is yet to officially launch, a formal opening is expected in the spring and projects backed by İTTM, established by the İzmir Commodity Exchange (İTB), are already bearing fruit. 

A robotics company has developed a farm vehicle operated by artificial intelligence with the aim of replacing humans in some agricultural tasks, such as the delicate and labour-intensive chore of picking strawberries.

AI is also being deployed to assess water usage in irrigation areas, as well as to identify leaks in water supply lines – measures that are increasingly important as warmer winters are affecting rain and snowfall across the country.

Other applications are being developed to monitor produce as it is being transported, aiming to reduce losses along the logistics chain. 

Developing smart agriculture applications is vital to reviving the sector and boosting food production and security, said Işınsu Kestelli, head of the İTB.

“We attach great importance to this project because the digital transformation of Turkish agriculture is one of the most important areas of structural reform for our country,” Kestelli told media ahead of the formal launch of the Centre.

Agriculture’s contribution to the Turkish economy has been declining since the turn of the century. It fell from 9.5 percent of GDP 20 years ago to 6 percent in 2023, according to state statistics agency Turkstat.

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As climate impacts worsen, there are fears this decline could be even sharper in the coming years.

Bülent Oray – chair of the İzmir Torbalı branch of the Turkish Chambers Association of Agriculture – said some of the new solutions being developed are ground-breaking, but added that he believed more than just technological advances are needed to turn the sector around. 

“Old age or traditional farming practices are not an obstacle to new technologies; it is the fact that farmers don’t make money,” Oray said.

“They would adopt anything that would cut their costs but for them these technologies are not affordable. Unless the state supports the cost of new technology in the fields I don’t see it happening.”