Ukraine's irrigation system may have a chance to recover, and farmers, especially in the southern regions, may have a chance to increase yields and protect themselves from drought.

UAC Deputy Chairman Mykhailo Sokolov emphasized this information for Comments.ua.

Last week, the agriculture committee of the Verkhovna Rada was presented a bill "On the Water Users Association", which was joined by leading agricultural associations, the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture, and international partners.

The bill provides for the creation of Water Users Organizations (WUA), which will be able to take on their balance the objects of the reclamation system of the lower level, which are in state or communal property or are no one's. WUA is responsible for their maintenance and modernization, providing water users with water for field irrigation.

The creation of WUA will be the beginning of the resuscitation of irrigation networks, to which very little attention has been paid in Ukraine. As a result, they are in a catastrophic situation: of the approximately 2.3 million hectares of irrigated land that the state had at the beginning of independence, just over 500,000 hectares are currently irrigated. It will also help to finally bring order to no one's networks, which after the collapse of the collective farms were never transferred to anyone's balance sheet. Today, about 30% of domestic irrigation networks do not have an owner. Because of this, during the years of independence, many of them were stolen and sold for scrap metal. The bill provides for their transfer to the balance of WUA, which will prevent their further theft.

After the establishment of WUA, farmers will be able to invest in the irrigation system and attract investment independently. Farmers are still investing in irrigation, because the yield after watering increases by at least 2-3 times. At the same time, where farmers managed to make irrigation systems themselves, the cost of watering per one hectare was 30% lower.

The issue of irrigation of fields was especially acute this year, when because of the unprecedented drought winter crops were lost in the southern Odesa districts. Of the 382 thousand hectares of lost winter crops in Ukraine, 300 thousand hectares are losses in the Odessa region. There are 260,000 hectares of irrigated land in the Odesa region, but about 40,000 hectares are actually irrigated. It is clear that without the restoration of irrigated networks, the southern regions will not be able to withstand drought.

The WUA establishment is only the first but very important step in resolving the issue of irrigation in Ukraine. We are currently creating conditions for the development of the part of the networks that provide water supply directly to the fields. But there is still a network of trunk canals where reform is also needed, and that is the next step".