Land of Güneşköy eco-village divided up by Ankara-Sivas high-speed train route
Turkey’s first eco-village initiative Güneşköy Cooperative is divided by the Ankara-Sivas High Speed Train Project. However, founders of Güneşköy emphasize that they are going to ‘continue working collectively and doing clean agriculture without using chemicals and provide food for Ankara from the nearest location.’
SEVİL ASLAN
‘Who we are: İnci, Ali, Claire, Fikret.’ This is how simply the founders of Güneşköy Cooperative tell about themselves on their official website. We get curious and hit the road. Güneşköy is Turkey’s first eco-village initiative, settled near Hisarköy between the provinces of Kırıkkale and Ankara.
In 2000, foreseeing the possible needs of the future, a group of city-dwellers, academicians, and landscape architects took a step in order make it easier to access to fresh and healthy food. They bought a land of around 75,000 square meters on the side of Balaban Valley near Hisarköyü, in Kırıkkale, nearly ninety minutes away from Ankara. And, they started on their work: tasks for the cooperative, on the one hand, and, efforts to turn the land into an arable field, on the other.
In 2006, they started cultivation. Since then, many urbanites have had a chance to meet with agriculture through Güneşköy: hundreds of supporters, domestic and foreign visitors, secondary school students, college students. And, they have also experienced the joy of collective production.
Alternative production despite the high-speed train route
Last year, the team that founded the Güneşköy Cooperative was shocked to find out that the railway for the Ankara-Sivas high-speed train line was to pass through this eco-village. None of their objections and negotiation attempts gave fruit.
When we visited Güneşköy last week, construction machines were already at work. Prof. İnci, who is an academician at Middle East Technical University (METU) says, “The high speed train project divided the land of Güneşköy in the middle. So, a group of our supportive friends decided to leave Güneşköy. However, we are determined. Here, we are going to continue doing clean agriculture.”
Producers at Güneşköy Cooperative, who also pay attention to social sustainability, talk about the importance of working collectively and taking on responsibility. While Adnan feeds the red California worms, İnci picks up vegetables and Ali prepares the land. This way, anyone coming in to Güneşköy gets a daily chore.
New products are to be distributed after the holidays
Güneşköy Cooperative has also contributed to the progress of other nearby villages. Several villagers got inspired and began to do clean agriculture.
In the early hours of the morning, breakfast is prepared with organic products. Meanwhile, tomatoes and cucumbers are picked from the greenhouse. Field products are not ripe yet. Anyone who comes to Güneşköy takes up a chore.
Landscape architect Fikret says, "We have the mud-brick building, the house made with hay bay, and the stone house, along with our greenhouse. We are still at the beginning of our path. Our dreams are many. But giving effort requires busy activeness."
Tractor running with bio-fuel instead of fossil fuel
In Güneşköy, where activities do not just end with mere production, there is also a tractor that runs with bio-fuel. The farmers here began to produce their own fuel instead of the raw oil that the system forces them to use with high costs. And, this contributed really greatly to agriculture in this area because using a tractor that runs with bio-fuel, which is also obtained from the farm itself, lowered the expenses significantly.
One of the other purposes of Güneşköy Cooperative is shipping the products to the consumers in the cities in an easier way. Basically, the aim is to create collobaration between the urban life and the village life. They hold a vision of collectively supported agriculture. Ali says, “If proper agriculture methods are implemented in this valley, a great percentage of Ankara’s food demand can be met from this area. Instead of providing food for the dwellers of Ankara from far places such as Antalya or Mersin, which also increases shipping costs, we think that food production and distribution can be done at the nearest possible areas.”
Despite the railway passing through the land of Güneşköy, there still remains a great portion that is cultivated and covered with cucumbers, tomatoes, beans, different kinds of peppers, zuchinies, eggplants, potatoes, onions, and stevia. After the holidays this week, these products will be distributed to people all round Ankara. The distribution points will be announced at Güneşköy’s official website.
Source: https://www.birgun.net/haber-