The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) distributed 50 drip irrigation kits to small farmers in conflict-affected Donetsk and Luhansk regions on February 16. 2018. According to a press release of FAO, the kits were distributed in the villages of Bolotene and Orlovske in Luhansk and Donetsk regions respectively. The two villages are located within eight kilometers of the contact line and both are short of water for irrigation.
Each beneficiary farmer will receive a full irrigation kit – designed for kitchen garden or orchard irrigation – complete with high-capacity water tank, drip lines, drip tapes, filters, hose and tubing, sprinklers, sprayers, and valves. Each kit is custom-made and can be utilized for a variety of crops. Water flow can be precisely controlled and deposited at the base of the plant, maximizing the water’s effects and minimizing waste.
Coordinator of FAO’s emergency response programme in Ukraine Farrukh Toirov said that drip irrigation is not just an additional means of increasing efficiency, but one of the most important components of modernizing agricultural practices. FAO experience shows that this technology can more than double the incomes during the first year of proper use, he said.
“There are about 2.8 million hectares of farming land in the Lugansk and Donetsk regions, but the irrigation infrastructure is old and often not operational,” he said.
FAO’s emergency programme in eastern Ukraine is financed by the governments of Canada and France, as well as by FAO’s own resources.
