Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 25 ISSUE 3
Written by Cătălina POPOVICI, Alexandru-Dragoș ROBU, Valentin BOBOC

The paper aimed to analyze the economic and technical efficiency of the spray irrigation system for maize, barley and wheat cultivated in the North-East part of Romania. In order to obtain stable and marketable products, it is necessary to optimize the amount of water indispensable for plant growth and fruiting, even when there is no water from natural precipitation or when plants cannot grow due to a lack of groundwater. In the North-East Region of Romania, by using local water sources and implementing modern irrigation techniques, it is possible to fully satisfy the water needs of plants, contributing to the improvement of irrigation efficiency. Thus, a profitable, sustainable and environmentally friendly agriculture can be achieved. The main production costs for the agricultural year 2022-2023 were about 4,000 lei for the non-irrigated maize crop and about 5,000 lei in the case of irrigation systems. For the production of wheat, increases of cca. 1,000 lei were recorded for the irrigated crop, compared to the non-irrigated one, similarly recorded in the case of the barley crop. This is mainly due to the increase in the cost of inputs price, the increase of water price and the fuel used for irrigation electricity generators. On average, the results obtained for the three investigated crops show that grain corn produces a higher profit per hectare when it is cultivated in an irrigated system (10,600 lei/ha) than when it is cultivated in a non-irrigated system (4,400 lei/ha). For the wheat crop, a profit of 3,500 lei/ha was recorded in the irrigated regime compared to the crop in the non-irrigated regime, where the profit was 20 lei/ha. Moreover, in the case of barley, a profit of 5,480 lei/ha was recorded in the irrigated system compared to the non-irrigated one.

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