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Nazmi Ilıcalı is a retired literature teacher.
Ilıcalı, born in Erzurum in 1953, worked in many cities of Anatolia.
For the last 20 years, he has been living in Erzurum
with his two university-graduate working children.
While educating thousands of students in Erzurum,
he also continued to farm
the land he inherited from his father.
Without drifting apart from the land or the villagers,
he tried to be productive in his small land.
Upon retiring from teaching,
he dedicated all his energy to his land in Erzurum.
He was using methods inherited from his grandfather
and working long hours for a small return. But one day,
his farming life changed when he was introduced to organic farming.
- Erzurum is at 2000 m. altitude
and is subject to continental climate.
In this geography, the entire population
complains about poverty and the cold.
Coal has been very expensive and that has reflected poorly in agricultural production.
So, the farmer was right in complaining about poverty and the cold.
But, in my research, I found out that
this poverty turned out to be a fortune
for the farmers in Erzurum.
The poor farmers of Erzurum could not buy chemical fertilizers.
I am not saying they did not, I am saying they could not afford to buy it.
And therefore they could not use it on their lands.
There were also pests that would leave
their eggs in our fields.
And more pests would come out of these eggs.
However, at minus 50 degrees Celsius,
all of these eggs would be destroyed.
After being successful in implementing
organic farming in his land,
he decided to help change
the lives of hundreds of farmers around him.
He went from village to village with his own means
trying to convince other farmers to implement organic farming.
And he gathered 633 farmers to establish
the "Eastern Anatolian Farmers and Breeders Association".
His goal was to do organic farming
with the 633 farmers he convinced.
The project Nazmi Ilıcalı started along with 633 farmers
grew day by day.
Other farmers who saw that organic farming methods
are more efficient, started joining the association
and changing their farming methods.
This change was reflected positively in the farmers' incomes.
Today, the Eastern Anatolian Farmers
nd Breeders Association, that was established by Nazmi Ilıcalı
with the ambition of organic farming, has 3.000 members
in 12 cities across Turkey.
Thousands of farmers in Eastern
and Southeastern Anatolia now share
Nazmi Ilıcalı's dream.
Organic wheat, barley, potato, cabbage,
cereals and legume produced in a total of
200 million square meters of land find many buyers
in the organic goods market,
especially in Istanbul.
The farmers are advised on what to produce every year
and they receive their money as soon as the product is sold.
- It all starts with loving people.
If people love one another, there is nothing not to be achieved.
I did this in Erzurum,
but we are active in 12 cities.
This is achievable everywhere.
Everybody can do this as long as they do not forget
that they are responsible to this land where they were born and fed.
Nazmi Ilıcalı's success story which was realized in the yellow fields
of Erzurum under the shadow of the Palandöken Mountain
is now being praised all around the world.
He is the person who got the most UN funding in Turkey
and he was named an Ashoka Fellow
by the US-based Ashoka Social Entrepreneurship Foundation.
However, the biggest reward for him
was to change the lives of people around him.
He did not succumb to the fate of the land he lived on
and touched the lives of people in his environment
with his own efforts, without expecting anything in return.
Nazmi Ilıcalı dedicated his days to this cause
and made a difference in the lives of thousands of farmers...