GÜBRETAŞ, which was founded in 1952 to increase agricultural efficiency in our country, also strengthens its leadership in the market with the R&D activities that lead the sector. This way the quality and reliability of the products that are offered to our farmers are protected and the company develops new product patterns that increase productivity in agriculture.
With works such as the first soil analysis laboratories established in 1985 and the Turkey Soil Productivity Map Project in 2005, GÜBRETAŞ ensured the spread of conscious agricultural practices and adds value to the agricultural sector through the use of innovative products.
GÜBRETAŞ increases the efficiency of agriculture and believes in the power of knowledge, technology and innovation in order to provide new added value to the national economy.
For this purpose, GÜBRETAŞ has combined its 67 years of strong corporate know-how with an innovative vision and continues with R&D and innovation projects, focused on in the last few years, to take new steps in this field.
THE GÜBRETAŞ R&D CENTER HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED
The opening of the GÜBRETAŞ R&D Center in Yarımca in May 2018 has started a new era that embodies GÜBRETAŞ’s efforts in this area.
As a result of feasibility studies in 2017, GÜBRETAŞ applied to the Ministry of Industry and Technology in March 2018 to found a R&D Center of international standards within their Yarımca Facilities in Kocaeli. After the inspections and audits, the Ministry of Industry and Technology accepted the application of GÜBRETAŞ for a R&D Center in May 2018. This way GÜBRETAŞ has added an R&D Center, operating in the field of agriculture, which has been approved by the Ministry of Industry and Technology, to our country.
In the first stage, the GÜBRETAŞ R&D Center in Kocaeli, which set out with 32 employees from different units, quickly started to work on 6 projects.
TURKEY SOIL PRODUCTIVITY MAP PROJECT
The Turkey Soil Productivity Map Project, started by GÜBRETAŞ in 2005, is an important data source for the agriculture sector.
As of 2019, soil samples were collected from more than 11 thousand agricultural lands from 81 provinces.
Macro and micro nutrients and soil properties are determined with the help of the soil samples that are analyzed in the GÜBRETAŞ laboratories. The data obtained from the analysis results are transferred to digital media with their coordinates.
Also, “plant nutrition recipes” are created according to the analysis results and offered to producers as consultancy service. During the project (as of 2019), 50 thousand farmers were given practical soil sampling and conscious nutrition trainings on the field.
In addition, with the help of the project data, “plant- and region-specific fertilizers” have been developed. For the main agricultural products in our country, the company contributed with 13 kinds of plant-specific fertilizers to high yields in agriculture.
TAGEM SUPPORT FOR OUR IMPORTANT PROJECT
A comprehensive R&D project of GÜBRETAŞ*, was accepted by the R&D Support Program of the Agricultural Research and Policy General Directorate (TAGEM), which is part of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, in June 2018.
This project, which is aimed at reducing the nitrogen and yield losses during the use of nitrogenous fertilizers, commonly used in agriculture, will be able to change the usage habits in the sector and also aims at reducing the drought risks that occur due to climate change.
In this way, it is aimed to achieve significant savings in the agricultural sector.
For the project, 5 basic agricultural products (wheat, corn, sunflower, cotton and sugar beet) will be planted for trial in areas created in 8 different provinces of Turkey in order to try new methods.
Within the scope of the project, 14 new fertilizer designs and agricultural equipment, to be used by the stakeholder companies for the application of these fertilizers, will be developed at the GÜBRETAŞ production facility in Izmir.
In this 3-year comprehensive project, from 2018 to 2021, GÜBRETAŞ will work with 2 universities, 7 agricultural research institutes and 2 agricultural mechanization companies from the private sector.
* Full name of the project “Production of Liquid Chemical Fertilizers Suitable for Plants Grown under Wet and Dry Conditions and Comparison of their effect with Conventional Solid Chemical Fertilizers and Development of Suitable Machines for the Use of Liquid Fertilizers”.
DIFFERENT PROJECT COOPERATIONS WITH UNIVERSITIES
With the TAGEM-supported project, one of the first steps of the R&D center, GÜBRETAŞ took an important step towards a cooperation between university, public sector and private sector and expands its activities in this field with different academic collaborations.
With the collaboration protocol signed with Gebze Technical University (GTU) in March 2019, the works continue for the development of new kinds of fertilizer, mutual projects and academic trainings.
Within the scope of the signed protocol with GTU, R&D Greenhouse was completed in such a short period as three months, collobrated with GTU, has been put into service for the sector and academy in October 2020.
In the context industry&academy collobration, negotiations are continuing with various universities in order to have certain project partnerships.
MICROBIOLOGY LABORATORY
Microbiology Laboratory was established within the GÜBRETAŞ R&D Center and taken into action on the 69th anniversary of our company, is planned to lead the R&D activities in the sector. It is aimed to develop new microbial fertilizers in GÜBRETAŞ Microbiology Laboratory.