The “Seed Technology Center” of Areo Tohumculuk, the center of seed studies of HEKTAŞ, the pioneer of smart agriculture, in Antalya Technopolis has been put into service. Areo Tohumculuk, which will provide significant benefits to producers with the center where Biotechnology and Tissue Culture Laboratories are located, also aims to add value to the country’s economy.
The “Seed Technology Center” within Areo Tohumculuk, the epicenter of HEKTAŞ’s seed work, became operational with the opening ceremony held at Akdeniz University Technopark. Areo Tohumculuk General Manager Gökhan Köseoğlu, HEKTAŞ Financial Affairs Director Uğur Akbaş, HEKTAŞ Financial Affairs Advisor Halit Murat Irmak and Antalya Teknokent General Manager İbrahim Yavuz attended the opening ceremony.
Important work will be carried out in the field of seeds with the center.
Areo Tohumculuk will rapidly develop 100 percent pure lines in its own laboratories, with the plant tissue culture laboratory at the Seed Technology Center, with the double haploid method in pepper, eggplant and cucumber species with the 2021 autumn season. With the integrated breeding studies to be carried out in the biotechnology laboratory, it will both significantly shorten the time needed for the production of new hybrids and offer the ability to develop hybrid varieties with the disease / pest resistance required by the target markets.
It will increase its share in the seed market.
Areo Tohumculuk, which HEKTAŞ acquired in 2019 and made it the epicenter in the field of seed growing, continues its activities with the motto of “Domestic R&D, Domestic Seed”. Areo Tohumculuk, which has accelerated its breeding studies for high quality vegetables and field crops by using the latest technologies, carries out its current studies in R&D greenhouses established on an area of approximately 26 thousand m2 of Akdeniz University Technopolis research area. Together with the activities of Areo Tohumculuk, which will launch new registered varieties in the near future, HEKTAŞ aims to meet the national seed needs of our country and increase its share in the world seed market. HEKTAŞ, which announced its decision to purchase 51 percent of the shares of Agriventis Technologies (A.T), which was established as a venture capital company in Australia last year, is taking strategic steps to strengthen its foreign R&D collaborations in the field of seeds. With the transfer of Agriventis Technologies (A.T) company, which has important seed breeding activities against climate change, to HEKTAŞ, it is aimed to bring drought-resistant varieties together with the producers and to realize their Turkish adaptation through Areo Tohumculuk by signing joint works with Areo Tohumculuk.
12 thousand-year-old seeds will produce Ata Siyez and Mergüze.
HEKTAŞ, which took over the sales rights of Ata Siyez and Mergüze, Turkey’s first registered einkorn wheat registered by the General Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policies (TAGEM), for a period of 5 years, aims to start wheat production and realize sales by 2022. With Areo Tohumculuk in 2023. Einkorn wheat, which is accepted as the first wheat of the world genetically, has been protecting its genetics for 12 thousand years in Anatolian lands.