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İpek pointed out that if no measures are taken, the loss and leakage rate in irrigation could increase to 52 per cent...
Agricultural Production Consultant of Ekin Agro Tarım Ürünleri A.Ş. (Ekin Agro Products Inc.) and Agricultural Engineer Sabri İpek stated that in a period when the climate crisis and water problem threatens the world and even a drop of water is very precious, agricultural areas are still irrigated with surface irrigation systems in many regions in Türkiye and warned that surface irrigation should be abandoned and modern agricultural practices and digitalisation should be adopted.
Explaining that 48 litres of every 100 litres of water is lost-leakage in irrigation with open canals, İpek said that if measures are not taken, this rate will exceed 50 percent and half of the water used in irrigation will continue to be wasted. Reminding that the Central Anatolia Region receives low precipitation, but the crops with high water demand are cultivated in large areas in this region, İpek said, “For example, the region where the highest quality products are produced in sugar beet is the Central Anatolia Region. The beet cultivators carry out very intensive irrigation and they do this with sprinkler system. Farmers generally do not irrigate according to a plan and need while doing this irrigation. However, soil structure is not like that. After the soil is saturated with water, it no longer takes the water and the water is wasted.”
Switch to sprinkler model!
Indicating that in the past across the country, surface irrigation used to be very intensive and in the following period, it has been switched to sprinkler irrigation model, İpek noted, “Cropss such as wheat, barley and sugar beet continue to be irrigated in this way. Sprinkler irrigation is in place, but water wastage still continues. Now, drip irrigation should come to all kinds of crops. While our farmers were looking away from sprinkler irrigation, now 90 per cent of them are used to it and use it. Drip irrigation is very popular in Central Anatolia.”
“Although it is applied very intensively especially in crops such as corn and sunflower, there are still provinces in Çukurova and South Eastern Anatolia where these crops are irrigated with drip irrigation system. In our country, drought has started to make itself felt in recent years. As Eskişehir region, we are also experiencing the negative situation. Especially in the area up to Beylikova, the main water source for irrigation of agricultural areas is the Porsuk dam,” he added.
“Until about three years ago, these areas were irrigated with a large-scale surface irrigation system, but with the decrease in the water level of the Porsuk Dam due to drought and low winter precipitation, both State Hydrolic Works (DSİ) and the Ministry of Agriculture have switched to a drip irrigation system of 90 per cent or more, especially in the cultivation of corn and sunflower crops. If you plant corn and sunflower, you have to install drip irrigation. From now on, this obligation should also be imposed on sugar beet production fields, fields irrigated with drip irrigation system should be created in sugar beet and field days should be organised and shown to farmers, although it seems impossible, I think it is feasible,” he concluded…
By Tülay Taşkın,
Source: www.dunya.com
