The Kemalpaşa Cherry Blossoms Women’s Initiative Production and Business Cooperative, headquartered in İzmir, visited the Vodafone Smart Village Campus. The cooperative’s founders and board members — Lawyer Gülay Sulu, Agricultural Engineer Deniz Dalgıç, Teacher Sevgi Demirtaş, and Agricultural Engineer Ufuk Öncül — met with TABİT’s management and founders, Tülin Akın and Coşkun Yıldırım, along with TABİT R&D Manager Orhan Kurt.
During the visit, Orhan Kurt gave a presentation in the conference hall detailing the agricultural technology applications used at Vodafone Smart Village. The team then demonstrated the technologies in practice, explaining the methods employed.
“Our Common Ground: Women in Agriculture”
Thanking the cooperative for the visit, Tülin Akın emphasized the importance of women in agriculture:
“Women in agriculture and livestock work very hard. As a woman, I believe it is especially important for them to benefit from agricultural technologies. Beyond this, we want to ensure that rural women have social life opportunities outside of work. Through technology, we demonstrate ways for all our farmers to achieve efficient and high-quality production. Our goal is for farming and livestock not to be seen as inherited work but as a profitable profession. We would be glad to collaborate with you on joint projects in this regard.”
“Our Goal: Women’s Economic Independence”
The cooperative members expressed their admiration for the technologies used and congratulated Tülin Akın for her leadership in supporting women entrepreneurship. Speaking on behalf of the group, Sevgi Demirtaş noted that the cooperative is a newly established civil society organization aiming to empower women economically.
“Agricultural Technology is the Key to Rural Development”
Demirtaş added that women can strengthen their role in all sectors by forming cooperatives, emphasizing the principle “unity is strength.” She said:
“We observed that TABİT and Vodafone Smart Village operate with a professional and dedicated team. Scientific and up-to-date data is systematically conveyed to farmers. We were especially impressed by the automation systems and other technologies used in agriculture. Combining research ideas with technology increases both the quality and yield of crops, resulting in higher income for all farmers. This is the key to rural development, and we congratulate you for your efforts.”
Lawyer Gülay Sulu mentioned the potential to develop joint projects on training and consultancy with TABİT and Vodafone Smart Village, while Deniz Dalgıç expressed that the technologies demonstrated should be adopted by farmers across all provinces.