Severe Droughts Dry Up Dreams of Turkish Farmers

Severe Droughts Dry Up Dreams of Turkish Farmers

Severe droughts in Turkey have forced farmers to fill tanks with water - AFP

Turkish farmer Hava Keles stares inconsolably at withered vines of rotting tomatoes in a field that has been devastated by a series of droughts blamed on climate change.

"My tomatoes, my beans, my peppers are ruined. My watermelons didn't even grow. The cucumbers I planted have shriveled up on the branches," lamented Keles, 58, standing in an arid Anatolian plot in Akkuzulu, north of Ankara, AFP reported.

Keles is among thousands of farmers across Turkey whose livelihoods have been ravaged as little rain has fallen to nourish their crops for the past two years.

Some experts accuse President Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- whose popularity has relied on prosperity driven by fast urban development -- of failing to do enough to address pressing environmental issues in the country.

But Erdogan has promised Turkey would ratify the 2015 Paris Agreement in October before a pivotal UN climate summit next month in Glasgow. Turkey signed the deal in 2016.

Environmental issues had never topped the political agenda in Turkey, but everything changed after a summer of extreme weather events, including forest fires on the Mediterranean coast and devastating floods in the north.

Action cannot come soon