September 26 2006, 15:11

The acreage of drip irrigated fields is rapidly extending in Zakarpattya

The cultivation areas of vegetables produced with utilization of drip irrigation have extended more than one third in Zakarpattya. This information was provided by Alexander Matviets, the Deputy Chief of Beregovo rayon State Administration.

Drip irrigation is mostly used for cucumber production. During the first stage of drip irrigation promotion in Ukraine the producers got acquainted with the advantages of this type of irrigation (also due to the efforts of the Agricultural Marketing Project). This stage has successfully passed already. The producers clearly understand now that timely implementation of all technological operations and utilization of drip irrigation let them guarantee the produce of competitive commodities of the planned quality.

Zakarpattya producers have started growing cucumber on the acreage of more than 1 ha this year. Generally the producers invested up to 50-60,000 UAH per hectare. Cucumber was mostly produced on medium acreage up to 0.2-0.25/ha in the previous years.

Some producers do not have a possibility to extend acreage. Such growers form cooperatives in order to assemble large shipments of raw materials for the processing enterprises. In particular, the cooperative "Dary Beregivshchyny" includes more than 50 members now who produce cucumbers on drip irrigated fields of 0.1-0.3/ha. However, the cooperative members could not individually supply sufficient volumes of raw materials for processing. That's why they sold produce for the processing enterprise through the cooperative this year. In season peak the cooperative supplied up to 10 tons of the calibrated cucumber for processing on a daily basis.

The other peculiarity of this year is the fact that processing enterprises started own production of cucumbers (4 to 8 ha cucumbers on trellis).

Cucumber is the main vegetable crop produced with application of drip irrigation. Apple (M9 rootstock) leads the fruits produced with application of this technology. Practically all intensive orchards established this year will be produced with utilization of drip irrigation systems, and due to the funds provided by the compensation fee for orchard, vineyard and hop-growing development (these funds are based on one-percent fee paid by alcohol producers). In particular, only in Beregovo rayon 65 ha of intensive apple orchards have been established this year. The important thing is that the project of drip irrigation system is necessary to be developed for such acreages in order to avoid failures of the system operation in future.