Tobacco harvesting makes farmers unhappy
Tobacco is the only source of living for Saliha Güneş, who has begun to harvest tobacco after planting tobacco in a rental land. She says her family members work under difficult conditions but cannot receive a recompense for their work.
MEDİNE MAMEDOĞLU
Çewlîk (Bingöl) – Tobacco farmers have begun to harvest tobacco very late this year due to the February 6 earthquakes that struck Turkey and Northern Kurdistan and the flood disaster after the earthquakes. However, this year’s tobacco harvesting makes farmers unhappy due to the price hikes caused by the high inflation rate in Turkey.
Women farmers, who have been hanging the leaves of tobacco up on a string to dry them in the sun after planting and harvesting tobacco, say they keep only food on the table after working for months. Saliha Güneş is one of these women. When her village was burned down in the 1990s, her family moved to the Lice district of Amed (Diyarbakır). Every year, she goes to Çewlîg from Amed with her family members because they rent land to plant tobacco in Çewlîg.
She works with her two university graduate daughters
After renting land in Çewlîg, they planted tobacco in spring and began to harvest tobacco in autumn. Her family has earned a living from tobacco since her childhood.
“We planted tobacco late this year due to both the earthquakes and the flood disaster. Therefore, we began to harvest tobacco late. Now, my daughters are harvesting tobacco while I am hanging the leaves of tobacco up on a string to dry them in the sun. You have to make great efforts to plant, harvest and dry tobacco. My two daughters are university graduates; however, they work with us because they are not appointed as teachers. They are not appointed because we are Kurds.”
‘We keep only food on the table’
Saliha Güneş complained about the high cost of living. “Although we work hard, we keep only food on the table. Everything is very expensive. The rent price was less before but now it is doubled compared to previous year. There is no need to mention the fuel prices. We work very hard for months but what we earn does not cover our expenses,” she told us.
Saliha Güneş says that they are happy to have their own business but they do not know how long they keep having their own business due to the price hikes.
“Some people cannot even buy salt. Now, there are many people who cannot make both ends meet. Tobacco is our only source of income. Women make more efforts in planting and harvesting tobacco. However, we cannot receive a recompense for our
work.”