ISTANBUL, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Türkiye is stepping up efforts to combat worsening drought, unveiling a series of nationwide measures to protect its dwindling water resources and safeguard food production amid one of the harshest years in recent memory for agriculture.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry launched Wednesday urgent plans for drought-prone regions and unveiled a five-year roadmap -- the 2025-2030 Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Strategy -- outlining 23 measures focused on agriculture.
Key steps include promoting rainwater harvesting, reusing treated wastewater, shutting down illegal wells, expanding modern irrigation systems, and adopting a basin-based water management model.
The plan also calls for boosting research on alternatives to chemical fertilizers, such as organic, organomineral, compost, and green manure options, while promoting the expansion of agroforestry and living windbreak practices.
It further aims to protect and sustainably manage ecosystems, increase carbon sink areas, boost greenhouse gas sequestration, and reduce ecosystem-based emissions.
The urgency behind these measures stems from an alarming decline in rainfall and water reserves this year. According to the General Directorate of Meteorology, Türkiye's average rainfall in July dropped to 9.6 kg per square meter, far below the 1991-2020 average of 15.6 kg and last year's 32.7 kg.
Several regions, including the Marmara, Aegean, Western Black Sea, Central Anatolia, and parts of the east and southeast, recorded deficits of more than 80 percent. The Marmara region suffered the steepest shortfall -- 95 percent below normal.
"This is the first time we have experienced such a severe meteorological drought," Halim Orta, an academic at Tekirdag Namik Kemal University and a wheat farmer in Thrace, told Xinhua on Thursday.
"Surface and groundwater levels are continuing to decline, intensifying the hydrological drought," he said, noting that water storage levels in the Marmara drinking water reservoirs fell below 1 percent in August, reaching critical lows.
"Ultimately, this leads to socioeconomic impacts -- people struggle to find enough water for living and hygiene, while reduced production causes food prices to rise and disrupts accessibility," Orta said.
Agriculture experts warned the crisis is already cutting deep into harvests. Wheat production is forecast to fall by 15 percent this year, and sunflower yields by half, with canola losses of at least 30 percent.
Irfan Donat, an agriculture editor of online news platform Food and Agriculture, said that record temperatures in the southern region have also caused sunburn damage to citrus crops such as lemons, oranges, and mandarins, with Adana province reaching 47.5 degrees Celsius -- the highest in the past 95 years.
"Calling it a disaster year would not be an exaggeration," Donat noted. ■
