The House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading a measure seeking to strengthen assistance to all farmers by providing them with free irrigation services to boost their productivity.
The proposed “Free Irrigation Services Act” embodied in House Bill 5670 declares that the State shall pursue a genuine agricultural development strategy by providing support services to all farmers, including their irrigators’ associations and farmers’ cooperatives, with the end in view of raising their productivity and improving their access to markets.
More particularly, the government shall promote and institutionalize irrigation systems that are free, effective, suitable, applicable and efficient as a key strategy to achieve genuine agricultural development, Nueva Ecija Rep. Estrellita Suansing, one of the bill’s authors, said.
She said the bill provides that qualified beneficiaries of the free irrigation program shall include farmers, irrigators’ associations and farmers’ cooperatives.
Under the measure, owners or operators of corporate farms, plantations, fishponds and other non-agricultural crop users drawing water or using the drainage facilities of the National Irrigation Administration irrigation systems are not qualified beneficiaries of the program.
The government, together with the farmers’ and irrigators’ associations and farmers’ cooperatives, shall endeavor to build and operationalize an effective grassroots-based management of irrigation systems, the funding of which shall be included in the annual General Appropriations Act, Suansing said.
For purposes of ensuring construction, she said repair and maintenance of irrigation systems administered by the NIA, the required amount for such shall be included in the annual GAA.
The bill also states that the NIA shall provide technical and financial assistance to local government units and all farmers, including their irrigators’ associations and farmers’ cooperatives with respect to irrigation systems located, utilized, and managed in their respective jurisdiction, including all functional equipment and facilities appurtenant thereto.
The amounts necessary to cover the requirement of the NIA for payment of salaries and maintenance and other operating expenses shall be funded under the GAA, it adds.
Suansing said the NIA, in consultation with the Department of Agriculture, farmers and their irrigators’ associations and farmers’ cooperatives and other stakeholders, shall formulate the implementing rules and regulations within 90 days from the effectivity of the Act.
This developed as CamSur Rep. LRay Villafuerte has called anew for a makeover of the NIA by instituting reforms that would make the agency financially viable in providing free irrigation to farmers at this time when this agency is getting a lion’s share of government subsidies.
Villafuerte noted that each year, the NIA has been requesting for higher and higher allocations under the national budget, and continues to receive humungous subsidies from the national government to maintain irrigation systems nationwide and fund its free irrigation program.
“The NIA, despite being a state-owned firm, has been bleeding the government dry. It has even requested a higher budgetary allocation for next year as it has been doing so in the previous years, although its accomplishment rate is far from impressive,” Villafuerte, vice chairperson of the House committee on appropriations, said.
Villafuerte cited Bureau of Treasury reports showing that the NIA got P11.08 billion in subsidies in the first quarter—or more than five-fold the P2.06 billion acquired by the agency in the same quarter in 2016—that accounts for over half the P19.7 billion subsidies to government-owned and controlled corporations over that January to March 2017 period.