bill cobbett wrote:repulsewarrior wrote:...here you have the economics of water (4) times the price, at this point it is absolutely necessary to invest in the technology to irrigate fields most efficiently. it is the upkeep of the equipment which is 'expensive', as well as the failures and repair. a farmer may invest with the intent of saving money, but it is not an investment, once it's installed, that works without maintenance. for many smaller farmers, it is this that makes it hard to justify, and it is also the reason big agribusiness thrives, with special seeds and fertilizers, at some output greater there are greater economies of scale. now that we are talking, a thought, settlers will come with farms, they won't even "own" the land, they'll be parts of turnkey operations in the Karpas, brand new for the friends of Erdogan who he'll deem worthy because of the tributes from them. big water will mean big farms, but in this case they won't be Cypriot, just numbers in a bottom line for the "TRNC", to claim how things are well under control as a social-economy.
Don't think we're talking big farms RW... they just don't fit in CY outside the potato farms of the Mesouria, in the main it'll continue to be a sort of part-time, peasant type farming, one that relies very heavily on EU subsidies and is kept by these EU grants. Without these subsidies many farms in CY would close, then we get into problems of what to do to maintain landscapes.
Surely it would be far more efficient to see more grown in plastic green-houses, cash crops like tomatoes and water-melons... more efficient in terms of water use and more productive...???
Dunno, need an farming expert to tell us more.
absolutely, i agree, modern farming techniques is a step up, and i hope the lovely EU money goes to education, Cyprus potatoe are famous, but as you say, tomatoes are more valuable as a cash crop. i am not an expert either, but i can only remain hopeful that this is not a boondoggle meant to exploit Cyprus as plunder, where some benefit falls on the regime itself, with very little left for the Cypriots who this project is supposedly for.
...can it be that the cost of it is not counted because the water is not important?
