The Project of Scientists from MAKÜ Will Contribute to the Solution of Famine in Africa
Yapılış Tarihi | 11 March 2024, Monday
Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University (MAKÜ), under the leadership of Dr. Seyit Yüzüak, a faculty member of the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, won the largest international stakeholder and highest budget project fund in its history with the project named “INNOECOFOOD” within the scope of the European Horizon (Ufuk) program, which includes the highest budget project calls of the European Union Commission, covering a total of 10 different countries.
This project aims to establish ECOHUB farms in six different African countries, including Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Namibia, Tanzania, and Egypt, where drought, wars, economic problems, and hunger and famine, which peaked with the Covid-19 pandemic we experienced in the last 3 years, threaten a significant portion of the population. These farms will use innovative artificial intelligence technologies and climate-friendly renewable local energy sources, featuring optimized production-processing-operation-marketing qualities for sustainable aquaculture, Spirulina (a green-blue colored algae), and insect production. This project will also lead in employing and training the local population with low socio-economic status in these ECOHUB farms, ensuring that the local population continues the production chain and cycle in the established ECOHUB farms sustainably, and will also lead in producing and processing certified, marketable food and industrial products from these innovative farms, thus providing a potential for sustainable social impact.
The results and impacts to be obtained from this project, which was accepted in 2023 and will start in January 2024 and last for a total of 3 years, will also be an important reference source for future projects in terms of sustainable good agricultural practices and food production, the use of innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence and natural energy sources, and the protection of the natural environment. In this context, MAKÜ, which leads the mission and specialization program for regional development within the scope of the Agriculture and Livestock Project in our country, will add another to its contributions to both the country and the world economy by sharing its knowledge and experience with an international consortium through this project.
MAKÜ’s First European Horizon Project and Highest Budget International Project
Project manager Dr. Lecturer Seyit Yüzüak from MAKÜ, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, shared detailed information about the project. Emphasizing that the project is the university's first European Union Horizon project, Yüzüak said the following about the project; “Our project titled ‘Development of agro-ecological food products using eco-innovative technologies in Africa, sustainable production and marketing of these food products’ was prepared taking into account the European Union's ‘Farm2Fork’ strategy developed for a fair, healthy, environmentally friendly, and sustainable food system. Our project, which we briefly call ‘INNOECOFOOD’, includes a total of 10 different countries, including Portugal, Germany, and the UK from Europe, and Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Uganda, and Tanzania from Africa, and consists of 20 different international stakeholders, including universities, institutes, and private companies, with a total budget of 7 million Euros (€). Our project, of which I am the manager and work package leader from our university, is the first European Horizon project of our university and city, and with the project grant of 250,000 Euros it brought to our university, it is the largest budget European Union project of our university to date. We will carry out the establishment and production of the Spirulina farms we are responsible for in the project with a research team consisting of our university faculty members Assoc. Dr. Rıza Akgül and Assoc. Dr. Füsun Akgül, who have long years of work in the field of Spirulina, and our department's postgraduate students, under the consultancy of Prof. Dr. Deyu Xie from North Carolina State University in the United States. Our project started with the kick-off meeting held in Portugal and we continue to work. Additionally, with the support of our Vice Rectors Prof. Dr. Oğuz Gürsoy and Prof. Dr. Hakan Öner, after a six-month accreditation process that I personally worked on and followed, we have officially moved our university to the European Horizon Project League, thus strengthening the international corporate identity and recognition of our university. MAKÜ has thus taken its place as an important actor accredited in the European Commission Horizon Project League. I would also like to mention that we are proud and happy that Denizli Governorship, which is another partner of our project from Turkey, and my friend Redife Aslıhan Uçar, the project manager of Denizli Governorship, represent our country in the European Horizon League and have brought a total of 500,000 Euros grant to our country.”
