“Farmers need ample water supply first in order to plant rice and crops.”
For a country blessed with plenty of rainfall during the wet season, low agricultural production is an incongruity.
Poor water management system in the Philippines and inadequate irrigation facilities have hounded Filipino farmers for decades. Rice and crop production lack the basic water input. Many farmers have become reliant on the onset of the rainy months for water to start their planting season.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. sees technology as the key to revitalizing Philippine agriculture to unlock its full potential. The agriculture chief is right. Modernizing agriculture is critical to increased productivity and empowerment of the rural sector. It employs a significant portion of the workforce, yet contributes less than 10 percent to the gross domestic product.
Improving farm output, however, is getting down to the basics. Farmers need ample water supply first in order to plant rice and crops.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the former agriculture chief, too, wants a modern farm sector and better lives for farmers and fishermen. He prioritized the agriculture sector in his State of the Nation Address Monday and, fortunately, he knows where to start.
In just a span of one week, Mr. Marcos led the ceremonial opening of the floodgates for the Jalaur River Multi-purpose Project Stage II (JRMP II) in Calinog, Iloilo. The P20-billion project is seen to increase Western Visayas’ rice production by 160,000 metric tons, or 20 percent of the region’s annual rice requirement.
River multi-purpose projects, among others, conserve the water collected by waterways during the rainy season and prevent the resource from just emptying into the sea. They feed irrigation canals that farmers need all year long.
The JRMP II is the largest water reservoir project to be built outside of Luzon in more than 40 years. About 25,000 farmers in Iloilo will benefit from the additional irrigation provided by the project, which will also generate 6.6 megawatts of hydroelectric power.
The project will benefit 7,000 farmers across 17 municipalities in Iloilo’s first to fifth districts. It will produce 86 million liters of water daily for commercial and industrial needs in Iloilo province and Iloilo City.
“On top of its use for irrigation, a portion of the water from the High Dam’s reservoir, or around 86 million liters per day, will be utilized to supply the commercial and industrial bulk water requirements of Iloilo City and its neighboring municipalities,” said Mr. Marcos.
The chief executive the following day led the inauguration of the P940-million Sulvec Small Reservoir Irrigation Project (SRIP) in Barangay Sapat in Pasuquin, Ilocos Norte.
The Sulvec SRIP includes a 32-meter dam, aperture structures, a diversion dam with a 1.60-kilometer distance downstream of the main dam and a network of canals with concrete lining totaling 43.20 kilometers, and around 334 terminal facilities.
The project is expected to benefit over a thousand farmers in the town’s 10 villages
National Irrigation Administration (NIA) administrator Eduardo Guillen said the project would offer sustainable irrigation to nearby villages.
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Farmers need ample water supply first in order to plant rice and crops.
The irrigation project features an aquaculture component to boost farmers’ livelihood, while the scenic landscape can be developed into a tourist spot, like the Madongan River diversion dam in Dingras, Ilocos Norte.
Impounding dams and small reservoir irrigation projects are what farmers need in the countryside to make their farm more productive.
The NIA, meanwhile, will be at the center of providing practical solutions to Filipino farmers. It needs at least a P200-billion budget annually for its irrigation projects to ensure food security in the country.
NIA’s Guillen said the P200-billion budget would fund “short to long-term projects of the agency such as the construction of high dams, restoration projects, solar pump irrigation initiatives and water impounding projects.”
Funding constraints, however, may derail NIA’s objectives. The Department of Budget and Management only approved a P42-billion budget for 2025, even lower than the P70.22-billion allocation under this year’s General Appropriations Act.
The government’s goal to boost agriculture production largely hinges on NIA’s ability to build impounding dams and mini-reservoir projects. The Philippines should get its priorities straight if it wants the agriculture sector to grow and prosper.
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