Konya

Konya exists because the Anatolian plateau needed a breadbasket. Turkey's largest province by area sprawls across an inland steppe where precipitation is scarce but snowmelt irrigates vast wheat fields—earning it the title "Granary of Turkey." This geographic accident of fertility in an otherwise arid landscape has shaped Konya's trajectory for millennia.

The Seljuk Turks made Konya their capital in the 11th century, transforming it from a Byzantine frontier town into the heart of the Sultanate of Rum. For two centuries, poets, scholars, and architects gathered here—Rumi wrote his mystical verses in Konya and is still buried in its famous Green Mausoleum. This medieval cultural peak left infrastructure and prestige that subsequent empires inherited but couldn't replicate.

Modern Konya metabolizes grain at industrial scale. The province supplies 25% of Turkey's durum wheat, 35% of its sugar beet, and 38% of its seed stock. Four sugar factories process the beet harvest; 6,550 farmers cultivate seeds on 650,000 decares. This agricultural base spawned manufacturing: Konya now ranks 4th nationally in industrial enterprises, 1st in automotive sub-industry, and 2nd in machinery manufacturing. The "Anatolian Tiger" label reflects this post-1980s industrial surge—exports increased 41-fold from 2000 to 2024, reaching a $2.23 billion trade surplus.

By 2026, Konya faces the water question that every continental agricultural center eventually confronts. The Konya Plain Project aims for sustainable irrigation, but aquifer depletion accelerates. Whether Konya can adapt its grain metabolism to climate constraints—or becomes another Aral Sea cautionary tale—depends on decisions being made now.