Agriculture and Forestry Minister İbrahim Yumaklı announced at the launch program for the Secure Electronic Ear Tag Monitoring System (GEKİS) that the era of electronic tracking in livestock farming had begun in Kars.
Yumaklı said Kars was one of Türkiye’s leading livestock centers and that the province had been specifically selected as the project’s first implementation site.
Animals will receive digital identities
GEKİS will replace plastic ear tags with electronic tracking infrastructure. Each animal will be assigned a digital identity from birth, while its vaccination, health, movement, sales and slaughter processes will be monitored electronically.
Yumaklı said the system would enable faster responses to animal diseases, more effective management of outbreak risks and a significant reduction in the problems caused by counterfeit or lost ear tags.
Yumaklı said the new system would make producers’ procedures easier, strengthen public oversight and contribute to providing consumers with safer food. He added that greater registration would make breeding programs more effective.
More than 17 million cattle will be tracked
Yumaklı said Türkiye had more than 17 million cattle and that their economic value exceeded 1.5 trillion liras.
He said the country produced 1.313 million tons of beef and more than 20 million tons of cow’s milk annually, with the yearly economic value of this output amounting to approximately 1.2 trillion liras.
Yumaklı said this livestock population, which had largely been tracked through physical methods until now, would be monitored digitally through GEKİS. He added that they expected the system to reduce disease and animal losses, increase milk yields, lower calf losses and ensure that support reached the correct animals.
654 billion liras allocated to livestock farming
Yumaklı said they viewed livestock farming as a strategic sector and that 654 billion liras had been allocated to the sector over the past 24 years under AK Party governments.
He said the cattle population had increased by 7 percent and the small ruminant population by 11 percent since December 2023 following the implementation of the Livestock Roadmap. Yumaklı also shared data on Türkiye’s position in agricultural production.
Citing World Bank data, Yumaklı said Türkiye ranked 33rd in the world by agricultural land area and 14th in terms of arable agricultural land. He added that the country generated more than $83 billion in agricultural output last year despite drought and agricultural frost.
Yumaklı said Türkiye ranked first in Europe and seventh in the world in agricultural output, adding that this result had been achieved through the efforts of producers.
Focus on data quality and productivity gains
Yumaklı said even a 1 percent increase in productivity would mean keeping 12 billion liras’ worth of annual production in the country. He added that reliable data generated by the electronic system would contribute to faster and more practical decision-making.
Yumaklı said artificial intelligence applications required reliable and usable data. He added that GEKİS was not merely a technological innovation but provided infrastructure to support decision-making and production processes in livestock farming.
Yumaklı thanked President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Haluk Görgün, president of the Presidency of Defense Industries, for their support in implementing the project. After the program, Yumaklı received information from veterinarians and launched the digital ear-tagging process.
