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[av_heading heading=’Senators OK bill on free irrigation service ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY PRINCE GOLEZ
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MANILA – Senators approved a bill seeking to exempt small farmers from paying irrigation services.
Senate Bill No. 1465, or the proposed “Free Irrigation Services to Small Farmers Act of 2017,” is aimed at raising farm income and productivity.
“Freeing farmers from the burden of paying irrigation service fees will significantly reduce production cost, hasten productivity and increase [their] income,” said Cynthia Villar, bill sponsor.
Farmers and fisherfolk are “still among the poorest in the country,” composing “40 percent of Filipinos below the poverty line,” Villar said.
Under the bill, small farmers shall be exempted from paying irrigation services fees (ISF) for water derived from national irrigation systems and communal irrigation systems “funded, constructed, maintained, and administered by the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) and other government agencies.”
Villar noted that the NIA has P38.4 billion in this year’s national budget.
Farmers with more than 5 hectares of land, corporate farms, and plantations would continue paying ISFs, the bill stated.
“All unpaid [ISFs] and the corresponding penalties of small farmers to NIA, and all loans, past due accounts, and the corresponding interests and penalties of irrigators associations to NIA, are hereby condoned and written off from the books of NIA,” said the bill.
Villar believes the measure would “push growth and development in the agriculture sector, and help the country achieve its food security goals.”/PN
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