Cold snap triggers agricultural frost warnings across Türkiye

详细摘要

Türkiye is among the countries feeling the effects of climate change most strongly, with recent temperature drops of 10-15 degrees Celsius offering another indication of…

Türkiye is among the countries feeling the effects of climate change most strongly, with recent temperature drops of 10-15 degrees Celsius offering another indication of increasingly volatile weather conditions.

The Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM) issued agricultural frost warnings for many parts of the country last week and this week. Light and locally moderate frost was forecast for southeastern Marmara, Central Anatolia, inland parts of the Black Sea region, inner Aegean, inland and higher parts of the Mediterranean region and Eastern Anatolia.

In 2025, Türkiye experienced one of its worst agricultural frost disasters in recent years, with 16 crops affected across 65 provinces.

The latest cold spell has already affected producers in some areas. Severe frost at the beginning of the week damaged strawberry fields at higher elevations in Pamukova, a district of the northwestern province of Sakarya.

However, heads of local chambers of agriculture said no widespread damage had been detected in orchards and fields at this stage despite freezing nighttime temperatures. The completion of field crop harvests in many regions also helped limit potential losses.

Yunus Kılınç, a board member of the Union of Turkish Chambers of Agriculture (TZOB), said temperatures in the eastern province of Malatya had recently fallen to minus 5-6 degrees Celsius.

Kılınç said the number of agricultural products vulnerable to cold weather was limited at this point in the season. However, tomatoes and peppers grown by farmers in their own vegetable gardens were damaged by frost, he added.

Ali Şener Bayraktar, head of the TZOB-affiliated Akyazı Chamber of Agriculture in Sakarya, also said strawberry fields in the higher parts of the region had been adversely affected by the frost.

Bayraktar noted that the number of farmers taking out insurance through Türkiye’s state-backed agricultural insurance system, TARSİM, had increased recently.

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