Irrigation as means to reduce the risks of agricultural production in the South Ural

Mikhail Komissarov, Marat Ishbulatov, Aleksander Komissarov, Ayrat Khafizov, Khalil Safin

Abstract: The cultivation of crops in arid zones is subject to risks due to the possibility of atmospheric and soil droughts and, as a consequence, damage due to shortage or loss of crops. In addition to agrotechnical and forest ameliorative methods of accumulating and preserving soil moisture reserves, the selection of drought-resistant varieties of crops, irrigation amelioration plays a crucial role in minimizing damage from the destructive effects of drought. The significant area of the Republic of Bashkortostan, which geographically belongs to the territory of the Southern Urals, is located in the zone of risk farming. In the region, irrigation is used to obtain high and sustainable crop yields on an area of about 40 thousand hectares, which is 0.8% of the arable land. Sprinkling dominates among irrigation methods. Irrigation sprinkling allows you to get 2-3 cuttings of perennial grasses, while there is only one using dry land farming. During irrigation the average yield of irrigation of the awnless brome averaged to 4.4, of the bluegrass alfalfa – 6.7, and the fodder galega 8.15 t/ha of dry matter. The optimization of the water regime of the soil under the crops of sugar beets by sprinkling irrigation allowed to increase its yield to 60.7 t/ha. The irrigation of potatoes increases its yield by 1.5 times compared with that on dry land. The region is ctively introducing a drip irrigation method for vegetable crops and potatoes, which is more efficient than sprinkling. Field experiments showed that the yield increase from drip irrigation was 6.8 t/ha, while with sprinkling irrigation – only 4.7 t/ha. In the steppe zone on fl oodplain meadows with an area of 2.4 thousand hectares, the flood irrigation of natural grasslands is used, which makes it possible to obtain up to 2.9 t/ha of dry matter. At the same time, the yield on dry land plots does not exceed 0.9 t/ha. As part of the federal target program in the Republic of Bashkortostan, a long-term republican target subprogram “Development of agricultural land reclamation in the Republic of Bashkortostan for the period 2014-2020” is being implemented, which will increase the area of irrigated land to 54 thousand hectares.

Keywords: coefficient of moisture; drought; federal; irrigation of land; irrigation rate; sprinkling; target program

Date published: 2019-12-11