LAVENDERS AND TRUFFLE MUSHROOM ARE GROWN FOR EDUCATION

EGET

The EGET Foundation, established four years ago in Muğla, cultivates lavender and truffles to provide scholarships for university students.

Founded in 2015 in Menteşe, Muğla, with the aim of providing scholarships to university students studying throughout Turkey, the EGET Foundation generates its income from donations made by volunteers as well as from an economic enterprise established within the foundation. At the Armutçuk agricultural farm, established under the Education, Geriatrics, Ecological Agriculture, Tourism Foundation (EGET), lavender and truffles are cultivated on a 5-acre plot of land, and the income generated is used to provide scholarships for university students.

“Lavender and Truffle Mushrooms Together”

Providing information about the EGET Foundation, Özlem Uzman, the Chair of the Board and one of the foundation's founders, said: “The Education, Geriatrics, Ecological Agriculture, and Tourism Foundation was established to provide scholarships to students. Its main purpose is to provide scholarships. But for the foundation to survive for many years, there was one issue we paid attention to both when preparing the charter and when forming the board of trustees. That was that it should be structured in a way that would create its own revolving fund. Therefore, as soon as we established the foundation, it gained legal personality on July 25, 2015. As soon as we established it, we immediately created our economic enterprise. How will our economic enterprise generate its income? From ecological agriculture and healthy living tourism. That's why geriatrics is included. We immediately established our economic enterprise and started with ecological agriculture. We established Turkey's largest and first private truffle farm. We planted 415 oak saplings. We planted the oak saplings in Muğla Sıtkı Koçman..." "We purchased them from the university. Truffle spores were inoculated into the roots of these oak saplings in MSKU's research laboratory. We organized an event where everyone planted the oak saplings. They will yield their first harvest in 5 years. We plan to harvest for the first time starting in December 2019. To make efficient use of the land, we also planted lavender, which we know supports truffle growth, in the same area. We have two types of lavender here. The first is what we call Intermedia Super A, and the second is a lavender from the August Foli family. We preferred two different types of lavender because we also want to produce honey from our lavender. The aim was to extend the flowering period of the lavender.”

“We Produce Value-Added Products, Not Raw Products”

Safai Özer stated that they generate more income by transforming lavender products into value-added products, rather than just producing pure oil. “If we had sold the lavender as oil, we would have earned less income. But we transformed them into value-added cosmetic products. The cost increased slightly, but the profit margin also increased significantly. As a result of our sales, our income will also increase considerably. So, in agriculture, no matter what you produce, you only make money if you produce value-added processed products, not raw materials. Generally, this is the biggest mistake our producers make. Because they sell their products to the market without processing them, their income is low. However, producers may not have the power to add value; that's where cooperatives come in, transforming those products into processed products at the village and district levels, and only then can income be generated in agriculture. That's when the income of the villager, the producer, will increase even more. We produce shampoo, liquid soap, bar soap, cologne, hydrosol lavender water, and tonic. We have 6 types of cosmetic products,” he noted.