Drought management in the agriculture of Dobrogea province

According to climate data Dobrogea is the warmest and the driest region of Romania. Due to climate, the productive potential of soils is poorly capitalized; productions depend mostly of the precipitations regime. The phenomenon is known for a long time, but the first steps to combat drought took just in the mid twentieth century when there was planted windbreak forest in the area Comorova and Ciocarlia - Cobadin. In the 50s of the twentieth century windbreak forest was planted on about 3,800 hectares that protected an agricultural area of over 75,000 ha. The latter these were cleared during 1962-1965, when work began planning for irrigation. In the period 1967-1989, were equipped more than 420 thousand hectares representing over 82 % of the arable land of the county of Constanta and close to 160 thousand ha - about 48 % of the arable land of the county Tulcea. Due to improper operation yields were much lower than those projected. After 1990, facilities were destroyed and abandoned, so that in the recent years have been irrigated between 10,000-20,000 ha, although meanwhile were performed numerous analyzes and studies of rehabilitation. The lack of a clear strategy in the field, lack of funding for rehabilitation and sometimes of the interest of farmers to irrigate - in years of abundant precipitation - lead to the conclusion of an uncertain future while irrigation in Dobrogea is the main factor that depends on achieving high and safe yields.