First Lady Emine Erdoğan announced Saturday that a project aiming to encourage the use of indigenous seeds in agriculture had yielded its first crops.

On her official Twitter account, Erdoğan recalled a previous visit to the General Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policies (TAGEM) Talat Demirören Research Station in the Harran district of southeastern Şanlıurfa province.

Erdoğan shared the photos of the first crops from a local seed project in the station, saying "I hope that ancestral seeds, an important element of our genetic inheritance, will spread countrywide with this project."

Erdoğan, accompanied by Mauritanian First Lady Maryem Bint Ahmet Tikbir, had visited the station on April 26, 2018.

The use of indigenous seeds in agriculture has become an important issue over the last decade, especially after reports on the negative effects of genetically-modified organisms to human health.