**4. Conclusion**

Fig (*Ficus carica* L.) is mainly spread in the subtropical climatic countries in the world. However, in Turkey fig is grown not only in subtropical climates, but it could be grown in less subtropical or even mild continental climatic areas. Anatolia is one of the oldest genetic origins of figs. Cultural forms of *Ficus carica* erinosyce, *Ficus carica* domestica, and *Ficus carica* caprificus are located especially in the Aegean Region having parallel life cycles with wasp (*Blastophaga psenes*) to have a special fertilization biology for figs. Three receptacle bearings occur both in male (profichi or spring crop, mammoni or summer crop, mamme or winter crop) and female (fiori or spring crop, pedagnuoli or summer crop (maincrop), cimaruoli or autumn crop). Fig wasps live inside the gall flowers in male figs and become adult and fly away from them taking pollen and enter inside the female flowers and cause the pollination.

In conclusion, Turkey has the best ecological conditions for fig production. There are 285 fig cultivars and genotypes under protection at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and Erbeyli Fig Research Institute in Aydin Province. These elite plant materials were collected from the different parts of the country, since Anatolia has been the main genetic origin of fig (*Ficus carica* L.).

**109**

**Author details**

Emine Tanriver

Beta Fidan Research and Development Center, Adana, Turkey

\*Address all correspondence to: emine.tanriver@betafidan.com

provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

*Fig Production and Germplasm in Turkey DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86997* *Fig Production and Germplasm in Turkey DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86997*

*Modern Fruit Industry*

Cukurova conditions.

**4. Conclusion**

MESFIN network meeting [24].

economically satisfying fruit [12–14].

**3. Fig research and selection studies**

(*Blastophaga psenes* L.) which is a pollination vector has a symbiotic life cycle with *F. carica*. Caprification is compulsory for cultivars like Sarılop (Smyrna type) to set

In the Aegean part of the country, fig is mostly grown for dry production and exportation. So, most of the research in this area was carried on the performances of dry figs, mainly on Sarilop fig cultivar. However, the increase on the exportation and transportation possibilities of fresh figs caused to work on them (such as Bursa Siyahi fig cultivar) as well. Many studies were carried out to develop fig cultivation in the country. Kaska et al. [15, 16], Kuden and Tanriver [17], and Tanriver et al. [18] worked on fertilization biology and physiology of selected fig genotypes under

First fig selection studies have begun from the end of the 1980s with Aksoy [19] and in the 1990s with the studies of Aksoy et al. [20] at Ege University and Erbeyli Fig Research Institute and Kaska et al. [13] at Cukurova University. Kuden et al. [21], collected 38 fresh commercial fig cultivars from Southeast Anatolia region and 32 fresh commercial fig cultivars from the East Mediterranean region. They have also carried out another selection study on figs and collected and identified very promising genotypes [22]. Ilgin and Kuden [23] also identified fig germplasm in Kahramanmaras Province. All these selection studies were presented during the

Several Ms.C theses were carried out on fig selection [25–41] and also Ph.D. studies [19, 42–46]. Several selection, germplasm characterization, and cultivar

Fig (*Ficus carica* L.) is mainly spread in the subtropical climatic countries in the world. However, in Turkey fig is grown not only in subtropical climates, but it could be grown in less subtropical or even mild continental climatic areas. Anatolia is one of the oldest genetic origins of figs. Cultural forms of *Ficus carica* erinosyce, *Ficus carica* domestica, and *Ficus carica* caprificus are located especially in the Aegean Region having parallel life cycles with wasp (*Blastophaga psenes*) to have a special fertilization biology for figs. Three receptacle bearings occur both in male (profichi or spring crop, mammoni or summer crop, mamme or winter crop) and female (fiori or spring crop, pedagnuoli or summer crop (maincrop), cimaruoli or autumn crop). Fig wasps live inside the gall flowers in male figs and become adult and fly away from them taking pollen and enter inside the female flowers and cause the pollination. In conclusion, Turkey has the best ecological conditions for fig production. There are 285 fig cultivars and genotypes under protection at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and Erbeyli Fig Research Institute in Aydin Province. These elite plant materials were collected from the different parts of the country,

identification studies were carried out by different scientists [47–50].

since Anatolia has been the main genetic origin of fig (*Ficus carica* L.).

**108**
