Summary
The site is generally considered an area that is the most prone to the wind erosion in Turkey. But after the import of drilling technology by farmers of the region this problem in croplands are greatly reduced though the same problem still persists in very poor pasturelands.
Our proposed SIP area very close to the Apak Yayla settlement is an irrigated cropland with low organic matter content and prone to wind erosion due to unfavourable texture of soil. Soils are typically thin (25-30 cm) and sand grade with very low clay and organic matter content. In a larger scale excessive groundwater exploitation forms another urgent problem. Earlier ground water well measurement showed that annual drop reaches 8-10 m. Farmers mostly prefer cereals, maize and sugar beet as irrigated crop types.
WB3 meeting showed that stakeholders demand pastureland rehabilitation and groundwater conservation by vegetative and agricultural measures respectively. A re-evaluation of the choice of pastureland rehabilitation within the project's expert group in term of feasibility and sustainability indicated that implementing a vegetative measure to decrease wind erosion in pasturelands will be almost impossible due to a series of reasons. Pasturelands are state-owned and any implementation on them will require special authorisation from relevant state organizations which will eventually means time. Fencing, a part of probable measure for rehabilitation, will probably not suffice to keep away both sheep and shepherds. As a result, we decided to implement some agricultural measures (namely strip cropping and zero-tillage) to address the hotspot's problems such as low organic matter content, water scarcity and unsuitable soil texture.
To monitor the efficiency of the proposed measures, periodic soil sampling and their analysis will be carried out. Meteo variables of the field will be recorded in a station located in the Karapınar town 15 km to the NE.
