Türkiye is one of the leading countries in Europe in terms of geothermal agriculture, with more than 1.5 thousand natural geothermal sources. This allows the country to produce high-quality products while saving on logistics from the south of the country, AgroTimes reports.
Ali Kindap, Chairman of the Geothermal Energy Association (JED), emphasized the huge potential of geothermal energy to revolutionize agriculture in Türkiye. This resource is available in every province of the country.
“We can grow tomatoes in Ağrı, bananas in Van and strawberries in Erzurum. We can even create new globally recognised brands such as Anamur banana,” Kindap explained.
Significant success in geothermal agriculture
The country has already demonstrated significant success in geothermal agriculture. For example, EastFruit previously reported on the high-tech greenhouse of Çaldıran Geothermal Inc. located in the coldest part of Türkiye’s eastern region, the Çaldıran-Ayrancilar region of Van. The 34,000 m2 greenhouse (including a 500 m2 seedling section) was put into production in 2016. The greenhouse is heated using water with an average temperature of 90°C, which is obtained from 5 geothermal wells.
No need to transport
Moreover, geothermal agriculture offers the potential for significant savings in transport costs. By growing fruit and vegetables in different provinces, there is no need to transport products over long distances, Daily Sabah reports. This could help reduce food prices and position Türkiye as one of the leading exporting countries in the sector.
There are 5.3 thousand acres of geothermal greenhouses in Türkiye, but Kindap believes that the country can expand this capacity to 100 thousand acres within 10 years.