Reducing the Risk: Drought Mitigation and the Economy of Irrigation

Abstract

Hungary is situated in the Carpathian basin and its climate has similar tendencies to the South European region. In particular, temperature shows increasing tendencies in all seasons and precipitation decreasing tendencies throughout the year except Summer. The warming is faster than the global average, but the year-to-year variability of precipitation still has larger impacts than the decreasing trend. Furthermore, the reducing Snow/rain ratio and the growing intensity of precipitation worsen the Situation of the Surface water balance. Therefore, the Country is very sensitive to the climate change, especially to drought. Irrigation is the tool most used to reduce drought damage. Because of the water problems in the Country, irrigation is not possible everywhere due to the natural and economical problems. Irrigation is quite expensive, and the agricultural production has to return a profit, i.e. agricultural production has to be profitable. Different Cultivation methods require different investments, need different degrees Of human effort and produce different income. Therefore, the economy of irrigation can be judge only in a complex way, using natural, economical and social factors.