Pistachio production, which started with the sapling planted by Abdulkadir Yigit 49 years ago, provides the livelihood of the people living in Bektas village of Mardin today.
Abdulkadir Yigit (83) planted 375 pistachio saplings in his village despite all the efforts and reactions of his fellow countrymen during the years he was working at the General Directorate of Agricultural Enterprises. After a while, the villagers, who saw that more than half of the trees started to bear fruit, planted pistachio saplings on their land, taking Yigit as an example, whom they had looked down on his idea before. 500 tons of products are expected to be collected this year in the village, where the number of trees has reached 160 thousand over time.
“They did not take me serious.’’
Abdulkadir Yigit, the pioneer of pistachio production in the village of Bektas, stated that he learned that pistachios could be grown in their village in 1971 and turned towards this business. He said:
‘’I brought 375 saplings to the soil in the first place, 90 of them dried up, but other saplings kept. Remaining saplings started to bear fruit after a while. The villagers did not believe that I could produce pistachios before, they were laughing at me. Then they started digging holes to plant saplings. This time they were both digging a hole and laughing at themselves.”
Yigit noted that all the products planted in the fertile lands of the Mardin Plain are of very high quality and good yields are obtained.
‘’The pistachio contributed greatly on the economy.’’
Musa Yigit, one of the villagers stated that their livelihoods were corn and wheat in the past, but now the vast majority of them earn their living from pistachios. He said:
‘’When Uncle Abdulkadir brought the pistachio sapling, everybody made fun of it. Now everyone realized that it was worth gold. Pistachio enlivened the economy even more. Farmers turned to pistachio. There are 200 thousand pistachio trees in the village. Every year, pistachio is planted in 10-20 more acres.
Pistachios love the heat, the soil structure of Mardin and the sun it receives are suitable for production; Mardin farmers should produce pistachio.’’
2 facilities are founded in the village
Pistachio producer and plant owner Haji Abdulkadir Yigit stated that thanks to his cousin Abdulkadir Yigit, they started to grow pistachios in the village and made a living in this way. He said:
‘’The yield is good this year, we expect at least 500 tons of fresh pistachios. Previously we were selling our products in the field. Customers bought it from the field for half the price. We also set up a factory. We now have 2 factories in the village. For now, we are sending to Kiziltepe, Mardin and the region, but we want to open up more and become a brand in the future. We want to be a brand with the name of our village because Bektas village has the most pistachios in Mardin. All villages show our Bektas village as an example. They come to our village to get information about vaccination or pruning.”
source: AA / translated by Melisa Karayusufoglu