Performance Indicators for Improving Irrigation Management in Aegean District

Water is vital for agriculture and its effective use has become imperative. The largest share of freshwater use in the world is in the agricultural sector with a rate of approximately 70%. Therefore, the evaluation of irrigation schemes is of great importance. In Türkiye, irrigation schemes are managed and distributed by organizations such as water user associations, municipalities, and irrigation cooperatives. In Türkiye, irrigation schemes with a service area of 500 ha or more are managed by water user associations. In this study, Ahmetli, Salihli and Menemen water user associations’ irrigation schemes, where the Gediz River is used as a water source, were chosen as materials. The selected irrigation schemes service area constitutes 60% of the total service area in the region (DSI (General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works) 2nd Region (Aegean region)). The service area of Ahmetli irrigation scheme is 50,532 ha, 22,797 ha in Salihli and 22,865 ha in Menemen. The main crop pattern of the irrigation area is vineyards, corn and cotton. These irrigation schemes were evaluated using performance indicators such as water supply, irrigation rate, and amount of irrigation water used per unit area. The raw data sets obtained from DSI cover the years 2007 and 2021. As a result, when looking at the average performance, relative water supply, irrigation rate and amount of irrigation water used per unit area were found to be 0.70, 57.99 and 7682.45 m3 ha-1, respectively. Although 70% of the irrigation water need can be met with the water diversion to the system, the irrigation ratio was approximately 58% indicating the problems in transferring water to the system and the irrigation techniques used by farmers on the field are not modern. In addition, the main reasons for the unirrigated areas, are social and economic reasons (137 ha in the Menemen WUA) and the lack of water supply in the Salihli and Ahmetli WUAs, 2319 ha and 11320 ha cannot be irrigated, respectively. Modernization seems inevitable for more effective use of our water resources. The most effective techniques in this modernization are land consolidation, renewal of irrigation channels, extension and consultancy services to farmers, and making water fees according to volume can be counted.