Turkish farmers battle extreme drought in Karapinar - in pictures

The region produces wheat and sugar beet but drought and the depletion of groundwater has raised questions over whether agriculture is sustainable

A farm worker puts down irrigation pipes in a parched field near the town of Karapinar, in Konya province, Central Anatolia, Turkey. All pictures Getty Images

Farm workers tend a sugar beet field near Karapinar. Sugar beet consumes a lot of water, due to its long growth period.

Farmers Cafer Ungor, left, and Ferhat Altintas add fertiliser to water extracted from their groundwater well. Two years of extreme drought has forced farmers to tap in to underground sources to sustain their crops.

An aerial view shows salt deposits in Meke Lake, near Karapinar. The volcanic crater lake, which was created by an eruption four million years ago, dried out in 2020.

An aerial view reveals how little water remains around Lake Meke, its volcanic cone looming over the receding pools. Drought and groundwater extraction have caused it to dry out.

As Lake Meke dried up, the water became increasingly saline, with crystallisation occurring and salt deposits forming.

Farm workers tend a sugar beet field. Konya province is the heart of Turkey's agriculture sector, but extreme drought over the past two years has taken its toll on farmers and the land.

A field of wheat near Karapinar. Konya province produces more than 2.5 million tonnes of grain a year, but officials predict this will drop by 5.5 per cent in 2021, due to drought.

Farmers Hayri Kalkan, left, and Niyazi Ibrahimi add fertiliser to extracted groundwater for irrigation. Drought and the depletion of groundwater has raised questions over whether agriculture is sustainable in parts of Konya.

Tending to sugar beet in Karapinar. Extracting water to sustain crop has caused the water table in the area to drop by two metres.

Farm workers tend sugar beet in parched field fields. As underground water levels fall, this creates cavities into which surface material collapses, creating hundreds of sinkholes around Karapinar.

A low sun over the dried out Lake Meke. In the past, the lake was renowned for its rich array of wildfowl.

The salt-encrusted expanses of the dried out Lake Meke. While the lake had been home to more than 100 species of bird, by 2015, as the waters receded and become brackish, they were gone.

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