ATSO's Project Wins Support from BAKA

Antalya Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ATSO) Agricultural Technologies Entrepreneurship and Innovation Centre project has qualified for BAKA support. The ATSO Agricultural Technologies Entrepreneurship and Innovation Centre project was selected among 7 projects chosen from Antalya, Burdur and Isparta. The project to be implemented aims at establishing soilless agriculture technology units within the ATSO Innovation Centre INOVATSO and developing agricultural production methods resistant to climate change. Within the project framework, it is envisaged to establish an open innovation platform comprising relevant public institutions, seed and seedling producers, greenhouse technology, agricultural input sector stakeholders, universities, entrepreneurs, academics and researchers. The centre is aimed to operate across a wide range including new products and production techniques in soilless agriculture, greenhouse technologies, agricultural input manufacturing, and agricultural production software. Within the centre, agricultural technology entrepreneurs are to be supported with technical equipment and materials, training, mentoring and angel investor networks, contributions are to be made to the provision of trained human resources through training in technological greenhouse production, and startups are to be provided with opportunities through artificial intelligence software ideathon competitions.

To be established at INOVATSO

ATSO and BAGEV Chairman Davut Çetin made the following remarks on the subject:

"We are adding a new and strong unit focused on agricultural technologies to the electronics, mechanics and software workshops at INOVATSO, with the aim of transforming Antalya and the Western Mediterranean into a region that produces and exports technology and developing climate-change-resistant, low-cost, high-value-added, healthy food production and innovative product models in the agricultural sector. We are implementing a project valued at approximately TRY 1,500,000. Cities like New York are already preparing for sea and ocean level rise a hundred years from now. We do not have that much time to prepare for climate change and to reduce our carbon and water footprints. This project emerged as a concrete project of our Antalya Ecological Transformation efforts, but it is not limited to environment and agriculture alone; it is a project that will support many fields from industry to software. With our Agricultural Technologies Entrepreneurship and Innovation Centre Project, we are bringing together public institutions, our chambers and exchanges, universities, relevant NGOs, seed and seedling producers, and software companies to lay the foundations of a major initiative that will open new areas for Antalya's economy in future soilless agriculture, biotechnology-based industrial production, and artificial intelligence-supported software."