 | PHL to attain rice sufficiency in 2013 – NIA |
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balita.ph; January 25, 2012 11:09 pm SORSOGON CITY, Jan. 25 – The Philippines will be self sufficient in rice as President Benigno Aquino III reaches the half-way mark of his term, the head of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) said here on Wednesday. “We are working on it intensively and we are very optimistic that on the third year of the Aquino presidency next year, the NIA would be able to complete its target of irrigating a total of 250,000 hectares of irrigable lands throughout the country. With that, rice production would be enough to meet the requirement, according to NIA Administrator Antonio Nangel. Nangel met here on Tuesday afternoon with about 200 heads of irrigator’s association from the provinces of Masbate and Sorsogon to lay down the plans and programs of the NIA in the area for this year until next year and hear directly from them the sentiments of the sector. Before the meeting, Nangel, ushered by NIA regional director for Bicol William Ragodon toured several rice producing villages that are target sites for the agency’s projects, including those that are located in the “guerilla zones” of Sorsogon to find out for himself the needs for irrigation in the area. “I go around to oversee the readiness of line items and I am pleased by the receptiveness of our local irrigators on the programs of the NIA and by that, we are certain that implementations of our projects this year and onward will be smooth sailing,” according to Ragodon. Nangel said the Department of Agriculture (DA) through Sec. Proceso Alcala has provided NIA this year with a budget of P24.5 billion for the construction of new irrigation systems that would cover 87,405 hectares (has), restore non-operation structures for 57,199 has. and rehabilitate existing ones to service 79,246 has. for a total of 224,850 has. of service area nationwide. With that, he said that what would be remaining of the 250,000 has. of the country’s irrigable lands would only be 25,150 has. which certainly will be irrigated next year given the assurance of substantial funds. Achieving the irrigation target of over 224,000 has. for 2012 would mean rice production of 18.75 million metric tons (mts) as against the national requirement of 20.05 million mts or a deficiency reduced from 2.46 mts in 2011 to only 1.3 million mts., the NIA administrator said. “Then next year, when we are able to complete the irrigation systems for all those irrigable lands within the target, our rice production would be 20.44 million mts as against the national requirement of the same volume. That is rice self-sufficiency (RSS) attained during the first half of the Aquino administration, in short,” he stressed. Irrigated rice lands, Nangel said offer three cropping seasons—two regular planting seasons and one ratooning which the DA is promoting over these areas. Ratooning which is commonly being practiced on sugar cane, banana and pineapple is also applicable on rice through the modern technology developed by the DA. It requires no more replanting as all it takes is cleaning of the field after harvest and applying fertilizer on the newly harvested old plant, he explained. This process could produce at least 50 more cavans of palay per hectare without the burden of another tedious land preparation and fixing new seedlings, he added. In 2013, Nangel said the NIA will not only build dams and irrigation canals but also solar drying pavements over dams and along canals, mini-hydro power facilities using its dams and produce potable water from these irrigation systems. The solar drying pavements would be an initiative of the DA and NIA while the mini-hydro plants will be tied up with the Department of Energy (DOE) and the potable water system, with the local government units (LGUs) and the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA). “All these are for the benefit of the farmers,” he said. [by: By Danny O. Calleja (PNA) LAP/LQ/DOC/cbd/] |
