A Farmer’s Tale of Triumph: A Riveting Documentary Blossoms with Brand Sponsorships and Storytelling Mastery

Çiftçi (“The Farmer”) is a four-part documentary series following Sencer Solakoğlu through a full season, from sowing to harvest, as he sets out to break the world record for corn yield. Designed and managed by Prime Ajans, the project goes beyond a success story: its aim is to raise the professional prestige of farming in Türkiye and put agricultural productivity at the centre of the conversation. The series was released on BluTV.

Why this documentary?

Farming ranks 65th in Türkiye’s professional prestige surveys. We had almost never seen a film, series or documentary about a successful, charismatic, winning farmer. Çiftçi set out to change that perception.

Who is Sencer Solakoğlu?

Born in Istanbul in 1974 to a family from Erzurum, Sencer Solakoğlu went to boarding school in Switzerland at 11 and moved to California for university. After a degree in economics and a master’s in behavioural science, he worked as a clinical psychologist. Back in Türkiye, after a two-year feasibility study, he founded the Feyz-Süt dairy farm in Karacabey, Bursa, and later pushed agricultural productivity further with the Feyz-Tarım project.

• 1,000+ dairy cattle
• 2,400 decares of farmland
• 40 tonnes of milk per day
• Annual turnover above TRY 50 million

He shares his experience with producers through training programmes on thematic channels and industry conferences, and chairs the TÜSEDAD association.

If land that could yield 100 units gives us only 60, we are unknowingly wasting our country’s and our own resources through inefficient production.

Sencer Solakoğlu

The goal: a world record in corn

While average corn yields in Türkiye are around 1,000–1,200 kg per decare, the world record — held by US farmer David Hula — stands at 3,860 kg. Solakoğlu set up trial fields on 400 of his 2,400 decares, testing 84 different formulas to beat it.

Every trial is documented in a farm report shared free of charge with farmers — the first research report of this depth ever prepared in Türkiye, adaptable to farms of different sizes.

Four episodes, 350 hours of footage

From February to December, from sowing to harvest, the crew filmed day and night, recording 350 hours of footage.

• Episode 1 – Goal, Soil and Freedom (35 min): the team focuses on pre-season preparation and the innovative methods it will test. The race against time begins.
• Episode 2 – Trials with Hard Work (35 min): after solving mechanisation problems, the team gets back on track and starts sowing the record fields.
• Episode 3 – There Is Always Hope (35 min): farmers who missed the start of the season rush to finish sowing. Not every obstacle comes from nature.
• Episode 4 – Harvest (40 min): field research continues, and all hopes rest on the harvest results. Will the record fall?

Who appears in the series?

Former Minister of Agriculture Mehdi Eker — who served one of the longest ministerial terms in the history of the Turkish Republic — and Prof. Ersin İstanbulluoğlu, a long-serving senior official at the Ministry of Agriculture, comment on Solakoğlu’s work through interviews across the project.

The farming Sencer does is ideal farming. We need more Sencers.

Mehdi Eker

Prime Ajans’ role

The project was designed and managed by Prime Ajans founder Haşim Haluk Bölük and directed by İlker Savaşkurt, with a 16-person crew including agricultural engineer and director Yunus Ozan Korkut, project consultant Adem Kuloğlu, writer Mehmet Kala and music producer Uğur Ateş. A dedicated soundtrack album was also produced for the series.

I believe this project will raise the professional prestige of farming and set an important precedent by drawing attention to the seriousness of agricultural productivity and farm management.

Haşim Haluk Bölük, Project Design & Management

Sponsors

The series was made possible by Bayer, Climate FieldView, Dekalb, Adengo, New Holland, JCB and Timac Agro. The brands appear inside the story — as a natural part of the fight for productivity — rather than in the ad break.

Episodes, trailer and crew: ciftcibelgeseli.com