Tüm Yazılar
The Importance of Agricultural Irrigation in Turkey
Agricultural irrigation can be defined as the timely delivery of the amount of water required by the plant and not met by precipitation to the plant's root zone. Different irrigation methods are used in arid areas in the world and in Turkey to meet the water needs of plants. With these irrigation methods, high yield and quality will be ensured in production.
The increase in yield to be achieved in production with agricultural irrigation will increase the national income of countries. Indeed, irrigation is seen as an important input in the production of products with high added value. With the increase in irrigation opportunities, the dependence on climatic conditions in agriculture and thus the possibility of reducing fallow practices will arise. With the effective application of agricultural irrigation in the region, the possibility of obtaining more than one crop per year will also arise and fluctuations in production income will decrease. As is known, production periods in agriculture are long, and this brings many risks with it. In addition, parallel to the increase in product diversity, the distribution of income within the enterprise during the year will be greater and the producer will not wait for the end of the production period.
Agricultural irrigation is also known as the equal distribution of the water brought to the field head over the field. This reveals the importance of the irrigation methods to be used. Because many factors such as soil structure, topographical features, climatic features, and investment costs affect the choice of irrigation method. In addition, the irrigation method varies according to the production pattern. For example, while vegetable production is mostly carried out with the drip irrigation method, the sprinkler irrigation method is generally used for annual plants. Apart from these, an important issue in agricultural irrigation is the investment cost. Considering the structure of agricultural enterprises in Turkey, the fact that enterprises are an average of 6 ha increases investment costs and many producers cannot meet these costs. As a result, irrigation management will be unsuccessful and effective irrigation cannot be performed.
At the core of agricultural irrigation lies the effective use of scarce resources. As a result of using these resources in agriculture with correct methods and techniques, a more stable and sustainable production can be realized.
Turkey's agricultural lands are around 28 million hectares. While approximately 30% of this amount has irrigable characteristics, 5.5 million ha of area can be irrigated today. The presence of economically irrigated lands in Turkey is not yet at the desired level. Indeed, it will be necessary to implement policies and practices that can meet the increasing population. In order to meet the nutritional needs of individuals who make a living from agricultural production in our country and also to provide the agricultural raw materials necessary for industrial production, the amount of irrigated land needs to be increased. In addition, the employment problem will also be reduced to some extent with agricultural irrigation. With the production of products with high added value through agricultural irrigation, the welfare level of the agricultural society will rise and, in a sense, migration to the city will be prevented. Indeed, according to 2011 data, while agricultural income in agricultural enterprises before irrigation was 112 TL/da, this income was determined as 655 TL/da with irrigation (DSİ, 2016a).
Although agricultural irrigation is beneficial in many areas, some important points should not be ignored before investments are carried out. Agricultural irrigation is applied to a living production, and the knowledge and experience possessed by the producer are effective in its success. In addition, attention should be paid to the suitability of the lands to be irrigated and to the quality and sufficiency of the water source. If these conditions are met, agricultural irrigation investments should be started.
Yorumlar