PROCEEDINGS BOOK (Full Texts-Abstracts-Posters)
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INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS PROCEEDINGS BOOK (Full Texts-Abstracts-Posters) 27th -28th April 2017 Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University, Turkey ISBN 978-605-65814-6-5 SOCIAL IMPACT OF MAMASIN DAM IN AKSARAY PROVINCE: RISE OF FISHING SECTOR AS A RURAL DEVELOPMENT CASE Özgür Sarı TODAIE (Public Administration Institute for Turkey and Middle East), Ankara, Turkey E-mail: [email protected] Abstract The MamasınDam, that was built between 1952-1967 in the 12 km East of Aksaray Province on the Uluırmak River with an area of 16 km square. The Mamasın Dam is being used for irrigation of 25 thousand hectare in agriculture and sanitation of Aksaray Province. Any dam project in Turkey, as well as the Mamasın, has direct and indirect social impacts and assessments. The main indirect social impact of the Mamasın Dam project is the rise of fishing sector in Aksaray, includes four villages in the coast of the dam’s lake. There is a fishing cooperative with more than 30 members holding the fishing in the dam, which feeds the people of Aksaray Province and the hotels in Cappadocia region. The cooperative and the fishing gave alternative income and social security opportunities in the area. To understand and analyze the social impacts of the fishing sector, which was not planned in the project of the Dam and later accidently it had rosen, interviews were conducted in the two villages of the fishing sector (Gökçe and Çatalsuvillages). The members of the cooperative and other fishermen were interviewed. Other interviews were conducted with the restaurant owners of the tourism destination and officials of the Aksaray Province Food, Agriculture and Husbandry Directory. As the result the rise of fishing sector in Aksaray Province as an indirect social impact of the Mamasın Dam was evaluated around the arguments of rural development. Keywords: Mamasın Dam, Fishing Sector, Rural Development, Social Impact Assessment, Alternative Development. 1. Introduction The first dam in Turkey has been completed in 1936 to meet the drinking water needs of the capital Ankara (Başgelen, 2001: 5). The dam was built as a facelift of the modern republic to provide drinking water to modern Ankara with modern methods. The number of dams has grown rapidly to more than 500 damswith the purpose of producing drinking water, irrigation and hydropower in agriculture are scattered all over Turkey (DSİ, 2013). Although the dams are considered as a technical issue with their construction and operation stages, the social impacts are quite high, whereas the social sciences did not sufficiently studied. The dams are not merely effecting the development of Turkey but of social and cultural influences as well as of the social life style, production style and relations, ownership structure, transformation from large family to core family, migration and many other social phenomena and transformations. In order to understand this change, the Mamasın Dam located in the Aksaray borders and providing the drinking water of Aksaray was considered as a sample. The Mamasın Dam, built in 1957 and completed in 1962, is located on the Uluırmak River and has a 16-square-meter lake area. This dam is used not only for the drinking water of Aksaray but also for the irrigation of 25 thousand hectares of agricultural land. Its main economic activity is vital to the economy of this province, which is agriculture (http://www2.dsi.gov.tr/baraj/detay.cfm?BarajID=13). 2. The Socio-economic Structure of Aksaray Province The neighbors of Aksaray, which is located in the Kızılırmak (the Red River) area of the Central Anatolia Region, are Ankara, Konya, Niğde, Nevşehir and Kırşehir. Located on the Ankara-Adana Motorway, Aksaray is also a point that intersects with Konya Kayseri Road. Aksaray, which is the entrance gate of Cappadocia which is a tourism region, can be said to be in the middle of the place where the expression is located all the way in Turkey. Apart from Hasan Mountain, which is the symbol of the province, the land of the province is flat. Whether it is transport or agricultural, it is an important advantage to have less rudeness. The only natural disadvantage of Aksaray in terms of agriculture is the 64 need for irrigation, which is affected by the continental climate where the summers are arid and the winters are hard. Although it is in a relatively good location in terms of groundwater due to its volcanic landscape structure, it is not in a position to respond to increasing need (TÜİK, 2013). Even though the industries and services sectors are improving in Aksaray's economy, the importance of agriculture in economy continues. Aksaray, which has more than 380 thousand hectares of agricultural land according to the year 2013, has a considerable weight in the agriculture of Turkey (TÜİK, 2013: 131). In Aksaray, which carries all the characteristics of Central Anatolia Region, the biggest share in agricultural production is cereals with a share of 69%. The important products following the cereals are sugar beet, legumes, tuberous plants, vegetables and fruit (TÜİK, 2013: 132-133). After the starting of the fishery sector in the Mamasın Dam, the fishing became a significant sector in Aksaray’s economy. The fishing sector has been articulated to the agriculture and husbandry sectors of the rural area and became an important income source for the farmers around the dam. This study aims to evaluate the development parameters of the fishing sector in Aksaray as a social and economic impact and result of the dam in the rural part. 3. The Methodology Beside the Mamasın Dam, there are two villages concentrating on fishing industry, which are GökçeKöyü and ÇatalsuKöyü. There is a fishing cooperative including these two villages and 35 fishermen. Some interviews with open ended questions were conducted with ten fishermen and the president of the cooperative in the villages. In the interviews, the demographic questions, and the research questions about rising of the fishing industry were asked. Moreover, other interviews were conducted with the responsible official at the Agriculture, Food and Husbandry Directory of Aksaray Province, and 8 restaurant owners who buy fishes from the cooperative in the province. As the result, through the answers, the rise of fishery sector, the development of the fishing economy in the province, and the effects of this new sector on the farmers and rural development were tried to analyzed through some sociological theories in development studies. 4. The Socio-economic Structure of the Field The Çatalsu Village had lost the majority of the population because of the migration from village to urban areas to find out jobs. The president of the Fishery Cooperative is at the same time the head of the village. As he mentioned that the village got smaller from 400 houses to 70 houses, because of the poorer economic conditions. The irrigation is the biggest problem for agriculture. The Mamasın Dam is the source of the sanitation of the Aksaray Province, therefore, the irrigation from the dam for agriculture is forbidden. In addition the protection area around dam includes the lands of the village; therefore they cannot build up new houses and they cannot use the lake of the Dam for their animals’ water needs. The expenditures for the agriculture is getting higher and higher, therefore, the villagers are more tend to do husbandry. There are approximately 3000 sheep and 160 cows. As well as Çatalsu Village, Gökçe Village has the similar problems about irrigation and sanitation. As the result of the economic conditions, Gökçe Village has also send population to urban areas; its population had declined from 5000 to 200. 5. The Rise of the Fishing Sector and the Establishment of the Fishery Cooperative Since 2000, in the lake of the dam, atherine and carp types of fishes had been seen and the rise of fish population in the lake started a new sector. The catching of the fishes is significant for water cleanness in the dam and the fishing sector was promoted to keep the lake clean (Ersan, 2006). The agriculture, Food, and Husbandry Directory of Aksaray Province collected the farmers who catch fish to establish a cooperative. There are two main functions of the cooperative: a) The fishing sector has developed under the control and the fishing sources of the lake are used by justice among the fisherman. The control over the fishing industry through the cooperative enables the officials to control over the illegal fishing in the lake. Only the members of the 65 cooperative can fish in the lake with the fishing boats of maximum 5 meters. This control helped the local authorities to keep the dam clean. b) The cooperative enabled the members to organize the economic source efficiently and marketing the fishes to the restaurants around the province and through the cooperative the members could establish effective relations and communication with local authorities, hotels and restaurants. Through the cooperative, the members could gain governmental financial support and credits. Within the one hunting season from beginning of the fall to the end of the spring, totally 300 tone of fish is being hunted by the farmers. Fishing became the main economic source for 35 farmer families. The president of the cooperative mentioned that he could pay for the retirement and weddings of his sons with the income of fishing. Other members stated that some of them built up new houses and some other could buy new animals and farms with the income of fishing. The official at the Agriculture, Food, and Husbandry Directory of the province has claimed that there is a social effect of the rising new fishing sector on the dietary habits of the local people.