AQUA MIRABILIS

Irrigated farmlands occupy 30 thousand hectares in The Riverside, which makes for somewhat less than 1% of the total available arable land, or 0.5% of irrigated land of Russia. Irrigation is predominantly operated in arid districts of forested steppe in Irkutsk-Tcheremkhovo Plain for crop and vegetable farming, watering of pastures and hay-fields. As different from water supply of the cities, small rivers — Kuda, Osa, Ida, Unga, Zalari etc., are used for irrigation. The productivity of irrigated lands is generally low and usually falls short of design capacity. To make aqua mirabilis — the water, help solve the food problem, it is necessary to increase the efficiency of cultivation of ameliorated lands on the basis of reconstruction of the operating irrigation network, general improvement of agricultural techniques, creation of special irrigation-responsive crops, application of industrial technologies for vegetable cultivation in suburban zones.