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Wednesday, March 22, 2017
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ROXAS City – Farmers may avail themselves of free irrigation starting the first cropping season this year.
Agriculture secretary Emmanuel Piñol issued Memorandum Circular No. 13 series of 2017 after a forum with farmers and fisherfolk in Sigma town on March 16.
Under the memo, the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) and its partner irrigators’ association/federation of irrigators’ associations shall stop collecting the irrigation service fee (ISF) from farmers served by National Irrigation Systems.
The NIA will also stop collecting amortization and equity payments from farmers and/or farmers’ organizations in the construction, rehabilitation, restoration, and expansion of service areas of Communal Irrigation Systems Pump Irrigation Systems, including shallow tube well, small irrigation systems and small reservoir irrigation systems.
Farmers in Capiz are grateful. For the 65-year-old Domingo Alayon of Barangay Poblacion, Sigma, free irrigation is a big help.
“Every cropping season, we spend so much in farm inputs, including the irrigation of our farmland, to have a good harvest,” said Alayon, a member of the Pangpang Sur, Sinondojan, Maralag, Poblacion and Batobato Irrigators’ Association.
A farmer pays to the irrigators’ association or National Irrigation System P1,700 per hectare during wet cropping season and P2,550 per hectare during dry season.
“For projects with LGU (local government unit) participation, the equity requirement from concerned LGU will be maintained,” said Engr. Julieta Gallardo, information officer for NIA-Capiz.
Gallardo clarified that all back accounts or unpaid ISF, amortization and equity payments remain liabilities of farmers and irrigators’ associations.
Corporate farms, plantations, fishponds, and nonagricultural crop users drawing water or using drainage facilities are not covered by the free irrigation service program, she added. (PIA/PN)
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