Hidrológiai Közlöny, 2016 (96. évfolyam)
2016 / 3. szám - HISTORICAL SNAPSHOT - Ligetvári Ferenc: The power of irrigation
38 Hungarian Journal of Hydrology Vol. 96. No. 3. 2016. in the water scarce territory as a result of decades of hard work. (Of course there are other industries showing excellent development, for example the rise of Finland in manufacturing telephones). But in the field of water utilization the arid countries/states were and are advanced. California or Australia can be mentioned too but they have played the part of the „follower” countries recently. Figure 6. Location of the irrigation systems and their main canals Israel’s success in the agriculture is the result of a long fight against tough aggravating circumstances but the country managed to establish a well-functioning agriculture with the well-chosen technical developments in spite of the limited water resources. People living under such conditions can be successful when they build up a thriving agriculture with farmers’ and researchers’ determination, when half of the country is a desert but they are aware that the real value of the soil always depends on the utilization method. THE OPPORTUNITY TO ACHIEVE HIGH PROFITABILITY The agriculture plays an important role in the production of essential foodstuffs of the population in Hungary (bread from wheat, meat from com). The produced wheat (in case of 5 million tons) covers the domestic demand of one million tons with a high degree of certainty. Further one million ton is also suitable for the dietary category. But the remaining amount increases the storage of feed. It is undoubtedly true that the primary task of agriculture is the production of essential foodstuffs, the products being necessary for the so called mass catering. But in order to achieve high levels of human performance the human body must be provided with the optimal amount of minerals and vitamins too. For this purpose we must strive for a varied diet that can be achieved mainly with the consumption of horticultural crops. Most of the horticultural crops are short-lived. The plant cell structure is soft and it causes that the production conditions significantly affect its performance. If we create optimal conditions that is able to support the growth, producing harvest and achieving high nutritional value according to our expectation. To ensure this it is essential to satisfy the water demand of the plant. During the short growing period of vegetables the water supply must be ensured continuously because the periods with low precipitation prevent the achievement of the expected yield level in contrast with the woody plants. The water supply of the orchards has also high priority as the loads (frost effect, high temperature etc.) in the growing period may prevent the yield of the year but they weaken the opportunity of the preparation for the following year (sprout differentiation). The irrigation of the horticultural crops is quite limited in Hungary (Dobos 2014). It is apparent in Table 1 that a vegetable surface of 62470 ha was irrigated in 2013 but we get a sad value if we deduct 30000 ha of sweet com field cultivated with field cultivation technology. Examining the yield of the irrigated areas it can be stated that the irrigated crops double the result. (There is an income of 1.15mln HUF / ha in the irrigated areas while the non-irrigated areas achieved 0.6 min HUF / ha). It proves the gardeners’ expertise in the optimal water application. The results of the pomiculture can be seen in Table 2. Apple and sour cherry significantly stands out from the other varieties. The achieved results prove the positive effect of the irrigated cultivation as the non-irrigated orchard produced lmln HUF / ha while the irrigated orchard doubled the amount (2.23mln HUF / ha). IRRIGATION OF THE HORTICULTURAL CROPS Generally it can be stated that the water uptake of horticultural crops is very different. We can find quite drought tolerant ones (succulents), they are mostly ornamental plants but some herbs as well. On the contrary vegetables requiring almost uninterrupted water supply feel well under other ecological conditions. Their 80-95% water content demands constant or uninterrupted water supply. Some of them prefer a turgor similar to hydrophytes. In their case we must provide water supplementation not only in the roots but also in the atmosphere. This activity is called just-in-time supply. In their case practically the infusion dosage must be carried out. The temperate zone create relatively favourable conditions for woody plants as their foliage is able to „hide” enough water allowing for it to survive the transitional, shorter „water scarce” period without particular production decline. However fruit-trees or vine-stocks are able to maintain their living only cutting the assimilate production. Thus the winter water resource is not enough to achieve the expected economic results either in case of woody plants. For that very reason conditions appropriate for the original place of production of the plant must be ensured. The technical devices for this are now available. Apart from the classical water supplementation the devices themselves are suitable to carry out irrigations with special purpose.
