THE National Irrigation Administration (NIA) is working on further increasing its budget allocation for the construction of additional irrigation systems in the country, including Negros Island Region (NIR), to cover more areas with access to water, its top official said.
NIA Administrator Ricardo Visaya, who led the mass turnover of P291 million worth completed communal irrigation projects for irrigators’ associations (IAs) in NIR at May’s Organic Garden in Bacolod City on Tuesday, said to make farmers competitive with those in other countries like Vietnam, the number of irrigated areas in the country should be increased.
Visaya said the agency currently has a P38-billion budget, higher than the P34 billion in last year, adding that NIA targets to further increase its allocation by more than P50 billion next year.
“As our fund increases, our irrigation systems also expand,” Visaya said. He added that NIA is also working on hastening the construction, rehabilitation, and maintenance of dams.
The government may incur higher costs if the projects are implemented slowly, which will result to more “sufferings” on the part of the farmers, Visaya said.
NIA records showed that more than 50 percent of the farm areas in Negros have no access to irrigation yet.
In Negros Occidental alone, reports from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that in 2015, about 40 percent of the 65-hectare rice farms in the province have no access to irrigation and are still dependent on rain.
Visaya said on a national scale, more than 50 percent of the agricultural areas are not yet irrigated.
He expressed optimism that irrigation systems in Negros and other provinces in the country will expand as the agency starts to acquire bigger allocations every year.
“We might not be able to completely cover all remaining areas during the time of the President Rodrigo Duterte but hopefully we can reach at least 80 percent,” Visaya added.
Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr., who also attended the turnover rites, said that prior to the national government’s implementation of the free irrigation service program, the Provincial Government is not collecting fees for the irrigation systems it constructed more than 10 years back.
Marañon said the province has established irrigation systems like small water impounding system in at least 100 locations as he cited various counterparting projects with NIA aimed at improving the local rice sufficiency.
“Irrigation is very important for farmers, especially for those planting rice, that is why the provincial government is supportive in irrigating more areas,” the governor said, adding that the province will continue to support big irrigation projects NIA will undertake.
The P291 million worth of communal irrigation projects seen to capacitate farmer-members were turned over to 20 recipient-IAs in the region.
The amount comprises 15 projects in Negros Oriental amounting to P264 million, and five projects in Negros Occidental worth P27 million.
The projects, which cover a total of 3,012 farmer-members in the region, have infrastructure components like irrigation systems, diversion works, canalization, rehabilitation and restoration.
Aside from the project turnover, NIA and another 50 IAs composed of 9, 708 farmers also signed a modified Irrigation Management Transfer contract.
The contract provides “standard” guidelines on operation and maintenance responsibilities of all parties inconformity with new policy on free irrigation service.
