5 Irrigation and Drainage in Polish Agriculture …
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can be assessed at a few dozen. These businesses are interested in the production and
installation, on systems of drainage using drains and ditches, regulators for stopping
the outflow of water (for damming-up water in ditches and drainage wells), as well
as the adaptation of intakes for the regulation and measurement of water flow rate.
Another group are the few design service companies which, in cooperation with
water users’ associations, would undertake the remunerated operational planning of
drainage and irrigation of land along with monitoring and short-term agro-hydrometeorological forecasting. The most numerous group of entities expressing interest
in the subject matter include groups of water users’ associations. A specific group of
entities expressing interest in the operational planning of drainage and subirrigation
are agricultural advisory services as well as units of the local government. All entities
express an interest in implementing the results of the project in business, indicating
risk connected with the fact that the market of drainage/irrigation innovations is a
rising market, the results of the project may have a positive influence on. There is
an urgent need to establish contacts between the science and business communities,
as well as other entities, in order to jointly devise innovative drainage and irrigation
solutions, implemented in, e.g. systems undergoing rebuilding or modernization.
The results of the project will be of high importance on the scale of a farm, as
well as to society. The direct end recipients (users) will be farmers, owners or users
of drained and irrigated agricultural lands, mainly in lowlands (low land slopes).
The number of end users of the project results is reflected by the area of agricultural land containing drainage/irrigation equipment (systems) maintained in working
order. On the scale of the country, such systems function on 2.9 million hectares of
agricultural land, and in the case of lowland provinces, benefitting most from the
development of drainage/irrigation, on 1.7 million hectares of arable land and 0.4
million hectares of permanent grasslands. The end recipients of the project results
also include water users’ associations, which, by law, are responsible for the exploitation of drainage/irrigation devices. The number of such units is approx. 2300. Society,
on the other hand, would be an indirect end user of the project results. The efficient
management of water in irrigated agriculture signifies more water for its users.
The problem of regulating (stopping) the outflow of water from a system is taken
up very rarely in practice, which results from, among others, the lack of appropriate
outflow regulators. Some of these types of devices have been presented in the form
of untested prototypes. The need for stopping the outflow of water from drainage
systems is indicated by the research of Szejba et al. [22], who showed that, under
conditions of unrestricted outflow from drained areas, significant amounts of biogenic
compounds also flow out together with water.
The issue of operational planning stemmed from the need to improve water
management in drained/irrigated agricultural areas, especially the management of
“own” water on drained arable land, and own water and water taken in from the
outside on permanent grasslands (meadows and pastures).
115
can be assessed at a few dozen. These businesses are interested in the production and
installation, on systems of drainage using drains and ditches, regulators for stopping
the outflow of water (for damming-up water in ditches and drainage wells), as well
as the adaptation of intakes for the regulation and measurement of water flow rate.
Another group are the few design service companies which, in cooperation with
water users’ associations, would undertake the remunerated operational planning of
drainage and irrigation of land along with monitoring and short-term agro-hydrometeorological forecasting. The most numerous group of entities expressing interest
in the subject matter include groups of water users’ associations. A specific group of
entities expressing interest in the operational planning of drainage and subirrigation
are agricultural advisory services as well as units of the local government. All entities
express an interest in implementing the results of the project in business, indicating
risk connected with the fact that the market of drainage/irrigation innovations is a
rising market, the results of the project may have a positive influence on. There is
an urgent need to establish contacts between the science and business communities,
as well as other entities, in order to jointly devise innovative drainage and irrigation
solutions, implemented in, e.g. systems undergoing rebuilding or modernization.
The results of the project will be of high importance on the scale of a farm, as
well as to society. The direct end recipients (users) will be farmers, owners or users
of drained and irrigated agricultural lands, mainly in lowlands (low land slopes).
The number of end users of the project results is reflected by the area of agricultural land containing drainage/irrigation equipment (systems) maintained in working
order. On the scale of the country, such systems function on 2.9 million hectares of
agricultural land, and in the case of lowland provinces, benefitting most from the
development of drainage/irrigation, on 1.7 million hectares of arable land and 0.4
million hectares of permanent grasslands. The end recipients of the project results
also include water users’ associations, which, by law, are responsible for the exploitation of drainage/irrigation devices. The number of such units is approx. 2300. Society,
on the other hand, would be an indirect end user of the project results. The efficient
management of water in irrigated agriculture signifies more water for its users.
The problem of regulating (stopping) the outflow of water from a system is taken
up very rarely in practice, which results from, among others, the lack of appropriate
outflow regulators. Some of these types of devices have been presented in the form
of untested prototypes. The need for stopping the outflow of water from drainage
systems is indicated by the research of Szejba et al. [22], who showed that, under
conditions of unrestricted outflow from drained areas, significant amounts of biogenic
compounds also flow out together with water.
The issue of operational planning stemmed from the need to improve water
management in drained/irrigated agricultural areas, especially the management of
“own” water on drained arable land, and own water and water taken in from the
outside on permanent grasslands (meadows and pastures).