Around 3,500 hectares of arable agricultural land in Pelagonian municipalities Novaci and Mogila in the next three years will be covered by the modern irrigation system. The project worth 9.5 million euro will be implemented in partnership with the two municipalities, REK “Bitola”, PE “Strezhevo” and USAID informs Dnevnik.
So far these areas, placed across the river Crna, were out of the irrigation system that comes from the reservoir “Strezhevo”. As a result of frequent droughts, crop yields they were often halve while farmers were struggling to provide water and used the river Crna, which is polluted.
- The benefit of water would be great, as you cannot compare area that is irrigated with the one that is not irrigated. In recent years, we managed as we could, with channels from the rivers and irrigation pumps. Water was extraction on primitive ways only to reach the fields – says Nikolche Veljanovski, farmer from Novaci.
The new irrigation system will ensure the flow of potable water for approximately 1,200 families dealing with agriculture.
- Only in the municipality Novaci, this system will be of great benefit to our farmers as it covers about 1,700 acres, where about 630 families deal with agriculture will get irrigation water. The municipality has already taken measures for the expropriation of land where the system would pass and announced tender for assessment of land – said Lazar Kotevski, Mayor of Novaci.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture Zoran Konjanovski said that one of the priority projects of the government is to ensure the expansion of irrigation in Macedonia. He said that the project for the new irrigation system in Pelagonija will be implemented in several phases.
- In the first stage, the pipeline for a very short time i.e. next year will be connected to the reservoir “Suvodol” of REK “Bitola” which will refill the system with annual amount of one million cubic meters of water. The remaining quantity of water will be provided by hydro system “Strezhevo” which as the second phase will be implemented in 2015 and 2016, said Konjanovski.
For this purpose, the water from the lake Suvodol near REK for the first time will be used for irrigation. However, farmers, except that will be provided with water for crops, through this project, will learn to save it.
- It is foreseen use of drip irrigation system. As Government, we have opportunities through the Rural Development IPARD and other donations to provide drip irrigation system to all interested farmers. Drip irrigation system is a system that saves water and further contributes to higher yields for crops, added Konjanovski.