CONCLUSION
After all the tests made during agrarian year 2002, it has been possible to draw the following conclusions:
- First of all, for cultivations irrigated with drip-systems, there were no productive increases neither in quantity nor in quality.
- Agrarian year 2002 with its strange progress, first dry and then extremely wet, doubted the benefits of drip-systems.
- In spring, during the phase of germination and with just transplanted cultivations, drip-system wascompletely inadequate due to the great waste of water, and many farms had to irrigate fields, prepared with drip-system, with a hose-reel irrigation machine.
- In June, distinguished by a torrid dry weather, drip-systems were insufficient to grant the right moisture to the soil, with consequent stress of the cultivations, even though partial: also in this situation farmers intervened to irrigate with hose-reel irrigation machines (mostly on tomato cultivations).
- From the second ten days of July, the weather was distinguished by frequent and plentiful precipitations, which determined the unuse of drip-systems including the possibility to do any fertilizing irrigation. Farmers who anyway used the equipments during this period, caused a harmful situation on cultivations due to the many fungus diseases, as irrigation added to rain.
In conclusion farmers who bought drip-systems during year 2002 couldn’t pay off and cover the costs.