Contribution of irrigation for reducing the damage from drought in the area of the Danube region in Serbia

Abstract

In the last few years, drought has become frequent in our region and the damage caused by it has increased. The problem of drought has been studied from various aspects and in different domains (agriculture, energetics, transport and water supply). However, there are no specific technical and economic solutions for the damage reduction. In agriculture, irrigation could contribute to reduction of the damage as well as to more intensive agricultural development. In order to achieve this, large investments and large surfaces on which such high cost irrigation systems can be implemented are necessary. In some parts of our country, water can be a limiting factor for irrigation. For this purpose, a model for selecting the optimal production structure in irrigation during the dry and average years was developed. The choice of the potential crop for sowing (with or without irrigation) was brought out on the case of the specific irrigational system on the territory of the Danube region in Serbia (area of 3000 ha) depending on the expected amount of rainfall. Besides water as a limiting factor, the model incorporates restrictions related to the agricultural mechanisation, manpower, processing facilities and the market. The purpose of these criteria, in this case, was the maximum profit with or without irrigation (during dry or average years). The results of the optimisation show the share of individual crops in production structure depending on expected rainfall and coefficients with criteria function. The criteria function represents profit per unit (€/ha) that can be achieved with or without irrigation. Considering the frequency of dry years on the territory of our country in the long term, it is possible to calculate the total effects of irrigation and its contribution to minimising drought damage.