Peanut harvest begins in Silopi

SILOPI, Turkey —The peanut harvest  has begun in the Kurdish city of Silopi, southeastern Turkey. 

Men, women and children all work together to harvest the product.

" We get up at four o'clock in the morning. We eat our breakfast, send our children to school. We come to work and start working in the peanut field and we work hard for ourselves. This is our job. We have children and we have to work to make ends meet," said Amina Kizmiz. 

"I have been doing this work for 11 years. We used to plant crops and fields but the work was limited. So we started with planting peanuts. The majority of farmers in Silopi do this. Approximately 50-60 thousand dunams of peanuts are cultivated in Silopi," said farmer Ibrahim Guven. 

They work long hours, and harvest the peanuts from May until the beginning of autumn. 

"We face many difficulties. Since we bend a lot, we suffer from back pain," said Khanim Songur.  

Because there are no peanut factories in Sirnak, the peanuts are exported by truck to Osmaniye province.

Farmers have produced more than 20,000 tonnes of peanuts in Silopi this year, according to the Minister of Agriculture and Foresty Bekir Pakdemirli. 

Translation by Sarkawt Mohammed