DA seeks €350 million ADB financing for solar-powered irrigation projects

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) is seeking a €350 million (about P22 billion) loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to bankroll its flagship project of constructing solar-powered irrigation systems (SPIS) in key production areas nationwide.

“We have a proposal with the ADB for the development of solar irrigation projects. This is a very inexpensive way of irrigating,” Agriculture Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa said in a food security forum in Makati City yesterday.

De Mesa said the Philippine Solar Irrigation Project would diversify the irrigation systems in the country with the construction of smaller-scale units to complement the traditional large-scale systems.

The DA has devised a small SPIS, which can irrigate eight to 10 hectares of land, that can be developed and deployed between eight and 10 days, De Mesa said.

He added that a bigger unit of SPIS that is capable of irrigating 15 to 30 hectares would take a maximum of two months for deployment.

The agriculture official said the proposed borrowing has hurdled the inter-agency Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) technical board.

The DA is improving the proposal before submitting it to the ICC Cabinet Committee, which would evaluate the proposal and make the necessary recommendation for consideration of the National Economic and Development Authority Board chaired by President Marcos.

The DA is hopeful that the project will be approved this year.

De Mesa said the proposed loan would be spread across three years of the implementing period or from 2025 until 2027.

In a related development, the DA will request an additional P22 billion funding from the Department and Budget Management to finance its SPIS this year as well as its solar-powered cold storages. Each project would get an allocation of P11 billion, De Mesa said.

“Our initial design for the solar-powered cold storage is that it is good for five to 10 metric tons. It will be distributed to production areas of fruits, vegetables, fish and even to coastal communities,” he said.

The current DA leadership under Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. revived the SPIS as one of the department’s flagship programs to address the tremendous backlog in agricultural infrastructure, including irrigation systems.

The DA estimates that there are at least 1.2 million hectares that still do not have formal irrigation systems, which would require a P1.2 trillion investment at average cost of P1 million per hectare.

Agriculture officials earlier disclosed that the department plans to spend at least P5 billion annually from national coffers for the construction of SPIS.