The winners of the EWA program, developed to support women entrepreneurs in the agriculture and food sector, reveal the transformation that will take place when women’s hands touch the soil.
CEYDA UKUKAYA/ISTANBUL- The EWA program provides six months of support to women entrepreneurs in the agriculture and food sector in Turkey to develop their business ideas. With the support of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology food fund (EIT Food) and in partnership with Impact Hub Istanbul’s food and agriculture entrepreneurship platform Foodback and Topraktan, this year’s first prize winner was Sultan Gül and her team with Microhobist. The 5000 euro second prize was awarded to Eylül Er, founder of Palgae. Two women entrepreneurs talked about being a woman entrepreneur in the agricultural sector and the impact of their initiatives.
Domestic pesticide
28-year-old molecular biologist Sultan Gül, who founded Microhobist with her team of 4 women, describes the production of local and completely natural pesticides as an alternative to chemical pesticides as follows: “In the past years, a little girl lost her life due to pesticides in pomegranates. This incident affected us a lot. Our product called MHOne has a formula that both protects the plant from pests and increases its yield. Therefore, it is classified as a biopesticide. We plan to start mass production by the end of 2024.”
Cleans wastewater
25-year-old Eylül Er is a bioengineering graduate. She explains that she applied to the EWA program with a project called Palgae while continuing her master’s degree at Boğaziçi University’s Institute of Environmental Sciences: “It is a project based on cleaning the wastewater of food factories using algae. As a result of the cleaning process, we transform the powdery algae we obtain into new generation, carbon-free and sustainable raw materials that can be used in the plastics and textile industry.”
