Irrigation Performance Assessment in Turkey: Thrace Region Case Study

Abstract

Today a large part of the food needs are obtained from irrigated agriculture. However, because of inappropriate, inadequate and wrong management of irrigation systems, farmers cannot obtain desirable outputs. Irrigation systems must have been evaluated by acceptable indicators for expected outputs. In this study, five comparative indicators which are developed by International Water Management Institute (IWMI) were applied on 10 systems in Thrace region and performance was evaluated. As a result of the study, based on the 2003-2006 years output per unit command area, output per cropped irrigated area, output per unit irrigation supply, output per unit water consumed, and irrigation ratio were determined as 106-7498 US$/ha, 999-3947 US$/ha, 0.06-1.29 US$/m(3), and 0.12-0.63 US$/m(3), 64 % respectively. According to the results that are obtained, in irrigation schemes such as Altinyazi-Karasaz, Yenikarpuzlu and Kirishane where there is no lack of water, for increasing gross production value which is obtained from per area, plants which have high economic value like rice should be grown. However, in irrigation schemes such as Suleoglu, Kuplu and Hayrabolu where there is inadequate water resources, it is better to plant vegetable and industrial crops which require small amount of water and have a higher economic value instead of planting field crops.