Sisters Duygu Aygün (32) and Esin Güleç (27), who returned to the Kırıklar District of Buca district, where they were born and raised, after graduating from universities in different cities, claimed their ancestral lands. Duygu Aygün started animal husbandry in 2020, and her sister Esin Güleç started animal husbandry in 2022, with the pregnant heifer grant support provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry within the scope of the ‘Expert Hands Project’. The number of cows of the sisters, who raise livestock and raise their herd under the same roof, has reached 40.
Duygu Aygün, who graduated from Aydın Adnan Menderes University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Agricultural Economics in 2016 and returned to her village after completing her master’s degree at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, said:
“We are locals of the village. My father was a civil servant, but since he was a peasant, we also did agricultural production. We had olives, cherries. We had animals, cows and sheep. We love animal husbandry, we always had an interest in it. After I got married, I chose to live in my village. My wife supported me in pursuing my own profession. “In 2020, we heard about the ‘Expert Hands Project’. Such a project was made to direct young people to production, I applied and we were entitled to receive a grant.”
“We bought 13 pregnant heifers. We tried to multiply them by adding females to our herd. The male cows went to slaughter when the time came. We tried to raise and maintain this way. We survived by trying to sell the milk at retail ourselves. Production costs are increasing every year. That’s why we are currently having a hard time sustaining it. 40 “We have animals. We are thinking of returning to livestock farming,” he said. Stating that farms in Turkey are generally small family businesses, he said, “It is very nice that the family does this business together. We were selling milk together.” My brother also loved it and supported it. We were doing the marketing business together. He also received a grant because he loved it and wanted to expand it. My brother started with the thought, ‘Let’s do it together and grow it, we will become a bigger business!’
Esin Güleç, who stated that while she was studying Gastronomy Department at Avrasya University, she studied Agricultural Technology Department at Anadolu University as the second university, said, “I started my master’s degree when I graduated in 2022. After graduating from undergraduate education, I started animal husbandry with the Expert Hands Project in 2022. 5 I started this business with one pregnant heifer. The biggest contribution to my learning about this project was my sister. I was already involved in this business. I got involved by buying my own cows. My mother was a civil servant and a housewife, but we always had a few cows since my childhood. Since my father was working, we all had a duty to feed and clean the cows. My biggest example was my father and I learned this job from them. “I found courage after seeing my sister,” he said.
