RESTRUCTURING OF THE LARGE-SCALE SPRINKLERS

• Main Authors: Paweł Kozaczyk, Czesław Przybyła
• Format: Article
• Language: Polish
• Published: Polish Society of Ecological Engineering (PTIE) 2016-09-01
• Series: Inżynieria Ekologiczna
• Subjects: large-scale sprinklers; depreciation; electricity; restructuring
• Online Access: http://www.journalssystem.com/ie/Restrukturyzacja-deszczowni-wielkoobszarowych,64521,0,2.html
• ISSN: 2081-139X; 2392-0629

One of the best ways for agriculture to become independent from shortages of precipitation is irrigation. In the seventies and eighties of the last century a number of large-scale sprinklers in Wielkopolska was built. At the end of 1970’s in the Poznan province 67 sprinklers with a total area of 6400 ha were installed. The average size of the sprinkler reached 95 ha. In 1989 there were 98 sprinklers, and the area which was armed with them was more than 10 130 ha. The study was conducted on 7 large sprinklers with the area ranging from 230 to 520 hectares in 1986÷1998. After the introduction of the market economy in the early 90’s and ownership changes in agriculture, large-scale sprinklers have gone under a significant or total devastation. Land on the State Farms of the State Agricultural Property Agency has leased or sold and the new owners used the existing sprinklers to a very small extent. This involved a change in crop structure, demand structure and an increase in operating costs. There has also been a threefold increase in electricity prices. Operation of large-scale irrigation encountered all kinds of barriers in practice and limitations of system solutions, supply difficulties, high levels of equipment failure which is not inclined to rational use of available sprinklers. An effect of a vision of the local area was to show the current status of the remaining irrigation infrastructure. The adopted scheme for the restructuring of Polish agriculture was not the best solution, causing massive destruction of assets previously invested in the sprinkler system.