NIA allots P370 B for 10-yr masterplan

MANILA, Philippines - The government is spending approximately P370 billion in the next 10 years to improve the country’s irrigation system and increase serviced areas nationwide.

In a press briefing yesterday, newly-installed National Irrigation Administration (NIA) chief Peter Tiu Laviña said the agency would implement a 10-year masterplan beginning next year with an average annual budget of P40 billion.

The NIA aims to reach 75 percent of its total serviced areas from the current 57 percent.

“We want to increase that to 75 percent under the 10-year masterplan which will include the restoration, rehabilitation and opening of new areas,” Laviña said.

The country has a total land area of about 30 million hectares, with 10.3 million hectares classified as agricultural land.

The NIA uses 3.02 million hectares as baseline irrigable area and only 57 percent of which is developed with irrigation facilities.

By the end of the Duterte administration in 2022, about 70 percent will already be the projected irrigation development in the country.

Laviña said the 75 percent could still be increased after other countries and multi-laterals have expressed intention to provide financial aid for the country’s irrigation system.

The Chinese government has already pledged a P42.6-billion financing for six flagship irrigation projects that will be completed before the end of Duterte’s term.

Other possible assistance may come from Japan, Korea, Asian Development Bank and World Bank, among others.

Meanwhile, Laviña said the challenges of the country’s irrigation system include uneven distribution of major water resources and rainfall patterns and increasing competition among water users.

The Philippines also faces low water use efficiency in agriculture, degradation of priority watersheds and the depletion of ground-water resources.

By 2026, NIA aims to fully equip targeted service areas for irrigation with climate resilient designs, achieve targeted crop yields and production levels, and post higher farm household incomes and more on-farm jobs in irrigation.

The agency will make use of results-based irrigation development planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, climate change resilient irrigation infrastructure design among other strategies.

It also plans to strengthen local government units’ capacity for sustainable management of systems and promote public-private partnership and hydropower generation development.

Laviña emphasized while free irrigation would be implemented next year, farmers and farmer irrigators have shared responsibility to maintain the system.