Saving irrigation technology - Drought response solution

In the context of severe drought disasters, irrigation water resources are increasingly depleted and become more valuable than ever, especially in the current "fire pan" area of ​​South Central. However, many of the white sand areas and hilly areas have been covered with green color, farmers have good income despite the drought due to the application of advanced and water-saving irrigation technology.

Both 2.5ha, asparagus, peanut, and tomato gardens of Mr. Hung Ky's family, Cham people, in Tuan Tu village, An Hai commune, Ninh Phuoc district, Ninh Thuan province are located on a sand dune covered with a green color. under the beautiful rain spray.

While in this sunny and windy sandy area, most people have to quit production, Mr. Ky harvests every year, except for the cost of VND 300-400 million. This is the result when his family conquered this dry land.

Mr. Hung Ky said that his family used to be a poor household in the commune. Agricultural production faces many difficulties, because this is a dry area, lack of irrigation water. In order to have water for production, Mr. Ky as well as farmers here have to drill wells to get groundwater in place. However, in recent years, droughts continue to persist, underground water resources become more and more scarce and exhausted.

In the past, people here drilled wells at a depth of 6-7m to have water and could pump water continuously for many hours. But in recent years, it has to be drilled to 15-20m to have water, but the source in the well is very small.

Along with the technical support from the project "Building a model of saving water for poor people in the South Central region in Ninh Thuan", Hung Ky invested 80 million VND into the rain sprinkler system for his vegetable garden. family.

"This irrigation system not only saved him a lot of irrigation water, reduced 70% of labor, reduced 50% of fertilizer but yield was twice as high," Ky said.

Mr. Phan Quang Luu, Deputy Director of Ninh Thuan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that with the benefits and efficiency of the saving irrigation system , from models like Mr. Ky's family, the whole commune nowadays. An Hai has about 150ha of plants applied this irrigation technology.

Vegetable garden is equipped with automatic watering system in Quang Ngai.(Photo: Phuong Hoa / VNA).

This is one of the models that Ninh Thuan farmers respond to drought in order to save irrigation water, while reducing input costs but crops still increase productivity.

Advanced and water-saving irrigation technology for upland crops has been researched, developed and applied in Vietnam, proving the superiority of agricultural cultivation compared to traditional methods. The benefits as well as the effectiveness of advanced irrigation, saving water now are not only interested in vegetable crops but also for industrial crops, such as sugarcane, coffee, tea .

A number of sugarcane fields also apply drip irrigation technology which has great and obvious effects. If compared to the yield before applying the average drip irrigation to reach 45-50 tons / ha, the yield is 80-95 tons / ha when irrigated. In particular, some households with average yield of sugarcane crop reached over 150 tons / ha.

Seeing clearly the role of irrigation water for sugarcane, many companies and sugar factories have actively applied additional irrigation measures for sugarcane, such as Lam Son Sugar Joint Stock Company, Quang Duong Sugar Joint Stock Company. Ngai, Thanh Thanh Cong Tay Ninh Sugar Joint Stock Company .

As a province with large sugarcane development, sugarcane production accounts for about 25% of the country and over 50% of the North Central region, Thanh Hoa has paid more attention to investing in works to irrigate sugarcane. . The whole province has 41 works to irrigate sugarcane with a total irrigated area of ​​2,680 hectares, reaching about 8% of sugarcane planting area; In which, 228ha applied advanced irrigation technology in the material area of ​​Lam Son Sugarcane Joint Stock Company.

At present, Thanh Hoa is focusing on developing sugarcane material areas, reaching about 25,800 ha by 2020 and stabilizing until 2025, meeting the material needs of the three existing sugar mills. The province also has about 50% -70% of the total sugarcane area under intensive farming and 5,000 ha of sugarcane in the intensive area is invested with a high-tech irrigation system. At the same time, using high yielding and high yielding varieties will contribute to sugarcane yield from 61.7 tons / ha (2013) to 90 tons / ha (2020) and 100 tons in 2025, sugar content in the average sugarcane reached 12 CCS.

According to Pham Duc Luan, deputy director of Thanh Hoa Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the province is deploying investment in irrigation infrastructure projects to serve sugarcane irrigation for 610 hectares in 5 districts of Ngoc Lac and Tho Xuan , Nong Cong, Thuong Xuan and Nhu Thanh cost 110 billion VND . to ensure a stable supply of irrigation water for intensive cultivation of sugarcane, as a basis to apply advanced and water-saving irrigation technologies.

Thanh Hoa will also have mechanisms and policies to support farmers and organizations to promote the application of technologies and techniques to economically save key crops, creating a driving force for the application of high-tech irrigation technology in agricultural production.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Hoang Van Thang evaluated and applied advanced and economical irrigation technology, not only bringing about socio-economic efficiency, saving water but also an effective and the basis to cope with the ongoing drought situation is complicated and unpredictable.

According to the Department of Crop Production, the country currently has about 285,000 ha of sugarcane with an average yield of 66 tons / ha, equal to 92% of the world average yield. One of the main reasons for the low productivity of sugarcane in Vietnam is that most of the sugarcane area does not have additional irrigation water when it meets its limit.

Most of the raw material areas are grown in hilly and unused land areas without water sources, depending on the sky. While research results show, irrigation water is an important factor for sugarcane yield. If fully irrigated, sugarcane yields can increase by 50% -60% compared to no irrigation.