PowerWorms Project Multiplier Event Held in Malatya, Turkey
The multiplier event organized in order to disseminate the outputs of the project titled “Vermicomposting: The Future of Sustainable Agriculture and Organic Waste Management in Europe”, which is carried out under the coordination of Malatya Turgut Ozal University with the financial support of the European Union and the Turkish National Agency, was held at the Malatya Metropolitan Municipality Art Center and hosted by Malatya City Council.
Speaking at the event, which was held with the participation of agricultural sector representatives, local government and agricultural sector professionals, experts, students and farmers, project coordinator Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ekrem AKBULUT, faculty member of Malatya Turgut Ozal University, Faculty of Engineering, stated that “Increasing urbanization, industrialization and economic growth lead to the production of large amounts of solid waste worldwide, the management of this solid waste has become an ecological and technical problem, and sustainable solid waste management practices are indispensable for keeping the environment healthy and clean.”
Assoc. Prof. Dr. AKBULUT in his speech said; He pointed out that it is estimated that approximately 3 billion tons of solid waste will be generated worldwide by 2025 and that worm composting technology is the most appropriate option in terms of sustainability among the existing options in reducing the harmful effects of this waste on the environment and converting the generated waste into economic input.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. AKBULUT stated that with the project carried out under the leadership of Malatya Turgut Özal University in partnership with WWOOF (Spain), ILA (Netherlands), Innotomia and Innopolis (Greece), FACE (North Macedonia), NaturaInnova and Apricot Research Institute (Turkey), they developed an educational module that appeals to different age groups, enriched the educational materials with video lessons to encourage practical outputs, and a mobile application that includes a worm composting production simulation that will minimize the problems that people may experience during the worm composting production process was also offered to users.
