The products in the Kabalı Orchard, which is located in the Kadışehri district of Yozgat and is one of the largest orchards in Turkey, are protected from the damages caused by the hail.

The products in the Kabalı Orchard, which is located in the Kadışehri district of Yozgat and is one of the largest orchards in Turkey, are protected from the damages caused by the hail.

Village residents living in Kabalı village in Kadışehri district of Yozgat united their fields and removed the borders with the project they put into practice 8 years ago and established apple, peach and cherry orchards on a 5,000-decare land. The huge orchard, created with the cooperation of the public, private sector and citizens, was leased to a company. Village residents, men, women and children, while working in this garden, both received the rent of their fields and started to work under insurance. When the fruit trees started to produce fruit, it fell to the company officials to protect the Kabalı Orchard, which attracted attention, against natural disasters and to get the best product with the least damage. Fahrettin Aksakal, who made a research on the fact that the fruits were greatly damaged by the hail rain at harvest time, decided to set up the hail ball in their garden. Aksakal, who had the hail ball imported from Europe installed in his gardens, got a positive result and decided to contact a company that produces hail balls and have 3 more hail balls put in their garden. Especially in the harvest season, the approaching hail clouds give an early warning to the hail machine and the machine works by itself. In this way, the hail ball, which creates a sound wave, allows the hailstones to fall as rain and snow and prevents the fruits from being damaged.

Explaining that they imported a lot of balls as a result of their research 4 years ago, and after seeing the benefits, they bought 3 more balls produced by a company, Aksakal said, “We buy solid balls from the company. At the same time, another local company in Ankara detects the approaching hail clouds around our land and sends messages to our mobile phones and sends e-mails as an early warning system, as well as sends messages to the full machines and ensures that the full machines operate automatically. Thus, when the hail machines we brought from Van and the early warning system offered by the Ankara company are combined, it becomes a system that protects the garden as a hail shield.”

Aksakal, who also gave information about the function of the hail cannon machine, said, “The hail cannon breaks up the falling hail with a special sound wave and makes it fall to the ground as rain. Therefore, it actually turns a harmful disaster into a beneficial blessing. This year, it rained in the villages around us. Unfortunately, there was some damage. Since our full cannon at that time was only one, there were minor damages in places beyond its capacity. In this way, we survived the hail with the least damage.”