A LAWMAKER on Sunday demanded answers from National Irrigation Authority as to why the country needed to import one million metric tons of rice this year when P26 billion has been allocated for irrigation systems that are supposed to reverse the continuing decline in palay production.
Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte noted that while the NIA continues to allocate a huge chunk of its budget for the “construction, expansion and rehabilitation of irrigation systems” nationwide, its efforts appear to have had no impact in helping farmers mitigate the effects of the El Niño-induced drought, which was the primary cause of the decline in agricultureal output in the first half of the year.
“Sadly, from being one of the world’s top rice producers, the Philippines has now become one of the world’s top rice buyers, with the government set on importing one million metric tons this year to ensure sufficiency of our staple,” Villafuerte said.
“President Rodrigo Duterte has submitted a P3.35-trillion proposed national budget for 2017, which promises to bring about ‘real change.’ It’s about time that real change also comes to the NIA and it can only start by providing free irrigation to farmers,” added Villafuerte, who represents Camarines Sur’s 2nd district.
By providing free irrigation to all irrigable farm lands and restructuring the NIA, the Bicol solon said the government could realize its goal of attaining rice self sufficiency before the end of Duterte’s term in 2022.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia, the director general of the National Economic and Development Authority, said the massive rice imports were necessary to secure the supply of the grain through next year and keep its prices stable.
Palay production is expected to reach 18.13 million metric tons this year, flat from 2015 and reflecting crop losses in the first half of the year because of El Niño, Pernia said.
Pernia said now is the best time to import rice when prices are low.
He said the plan is to import the grain in three tranches through government-to-government deals and private sector purchases.
Citing Philippine Statistics Authority data, Pernia said palay production fell by 8.13 percent to 7.65 million metric tons in the first semester partly because of the decline in harvest areas and average yield in areas severely affected by El Niño, such as the regions of South Cotabato-Cotabato-Sultan Kudarat-General Santos City (SOCCSKSARGEN), Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Caraga and the Visayas regions.
Corn production also went down by 16.35 percent to 2.83 million metric tons during the same January-June period.
The PSA said the gains in the livestock and poultry sub-sectors, which grew 1.12 percent and 5.6 percent, respectively, were not enough to offset the drop in crop production.
This is the third consecutive quarter that the agriculture sector registered a decline.
Villafuerte has filed House Bill 2133, which seeks to provide free irrigation to farmers and restructuring unpaid irrigation fees, along with converting the NIA into an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture.
The proposed measure, he said, would allow the NIA overhaul its old system and arrest the sharp drop in agricultural production attributed mainly to the dry spell, especially now that even the local government units have started asking the DA to prod the NIA to provide free irrigation to farmers.
Villafuerte was referring to the request of the provincial government of Pampanga to DA Secretary Emmanuel Piñol to urge the NIA to give free irrigation to farmers in the province and to condone any debts they owe the agency.
“It cannot be business as usual for the NIA. The agency should shape up and keep in step with the new administration so that it could be an effective instrument in helping realize President Duterte’s goal of inclusive growth,” said Villafuerte, who was a three-term governor of Camarines Sur from 2004 to 2013.
CamSur posted the highest production growth spike as it rose from being the No. 12 to the No. 6 top rice-producing province in the country during his watch as governor.
Villafuerte said raising farm yields is one way to meet the President’s target of inclusive growth, especially in the countryside, as spelled out in the new administration’s 10-point socioeconomic agenda.
Congress, for its part, he said, should ensure that the allocation for the NIA in 2017 and succeeding years would be used to wipe out the irrigation backlog before the end of the President’s term.
Once his bill was enacted to law and free irrigation will be provided to all irrigable palay fields, Villafuerte said CamSur will easily become No. 3 rice-producing province from its current rank of No. 4 rice grower in the country.
Villafuerte’s HB 2133 also aims to streamline the government’s irrigation development program and carry out its mandate of irrigating 100 percent of irrigable farmlands in the country within a four-year period.
HB 2133 restructures the NIA by converting it from a government corporation into a line agency of the DA and renaming it the National Irrigation Development Administration.
Villafuerte noted that today, 2.4 million hectares or 43 percent of farmlands in the country still lack irrigation, even though the NIA was given the “flexibility of a corporate vehicle and the administrative autonomy” to achieve its objectives under Republic Act 3601, which created the agency 53 years ago.
Under HB 2133, Villafuerte seeks the scrapping of all Irrigation Service Fees and other irrigation-related charges.