Faculty of Agriculture’s Department of Agricultural Biotechnology organized “1st National Congress on Agricultural Biotechnology”.
The conference held in Atatürk Culture Center at OMU started with the participation of Rector Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Akan, Dean of Faculty of Agriculture Prof. Dr. Orhan Kurt, Head of the Congress Prof. Dr. Ahmet Okumuş, academicians and students.
Opening speech was given by the Head of the Congress Prof. Dr. Ahmet Okumuş. Okumuş gave information in his speech about the Department of Agricultural Biotechnology founded in 2009. He stated: “Over the past 20 years, the application of new technologies into agriculture has been brought to the agenda, and the genetically modified organisms have entered into our daily lives. Besides, 170 million people have died due to malnutrition according to the World Health Organization. We should increase our food supply in 20 or 30 years in parallel with the increasing world population. It is a must to obtain higher productivity from existing agricultural fields. In the past 20 years, especially Faculties of Agriculture have focused on this issue in detail for the development of products. Classical improvement technologies that are applied have developed to a great extent, and different technologies have started to be used”.
Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture Prof. Dr. Orhan Kurt underlined the necessity for especially concentrating on Agricultural Biotechnology. Prof. Dr. Kurt remarked: “When we look at the bio-strategic status of our country, it is seen that 2 of 11 gene centers of the world which are fundamental for biological divergences are in Turkey; that this situation has demonstrated the importance of the gene resources of our country, the advantages of biological divergences and the significance of the studies to be carried out in this field. Accordingly, the necessity for biotechnology has been underlined”.
Rector Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Akan emphasized the important status of biotechnological status. Rector Akan said: “Biotechnology is such a rich field that its gates are open to numerous subjects such as medicine, foods etc. When we established the Research Center for Advanced Technologies, biotechnology was one of the main three areas in the center. Biotechnology has gained an important status in Turkey in 4-5 years, and this improvement will continue in the following years. This field includes numerous controversial issues (such as transgenes, GMOs etc.). However, people need to take nourishment, and the world population is continuously increasing. Although the population has become older in the developed countries, populations continue to increase in less developed or developing countries”.
After the opening speeches, first session of the conference which will last for 3 days started. Seven sessions will be held in total within the scope of the conference, and a trip will be organized to Kızılırmak Delta Bird Sanctuary on the last day of the conference.
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