More irrigation systems rising in Pangasinan

DAGUPAN CITY, Philippines—The construction of an expanded irrigation system for Pangasinan will begin in January, as part of the government modernization program to improve food security, according to the former presidential assistant on food security and agricultural modernization.

Former Sen. Francis Pangilinan, who was Malacañang’s food security adviser until

Sept. 30, said agricultural modernization would enable farmers to produce more than enough rice for the country’s needs.

Pangilinan announced the recent approval of a P2.6-billion allocation for the completion of the Agno River Integrated Irrigation System Extension Project (Arisep), which would irrigate 12,800 hectares of rice fields in Pangasinan province.

Pangasinan is the third biggest rice producer next to Nueva Ecija and Isabela provinces, but half of its 180,000-ha farmlands still rely on rain.

Once the expanded irrigation system is completed, 10,557 farmers in Pangasinan would be able to proceed to their second cropping, Pangilinan said.

Arisep will benefit agricultural lands in the Pangasinan towns of San Nicolas, Tayug, Sta. Maria, Rosales, Sto. Tomas and Alcala; and San Manuel town in Tarlac province.

It is the extension of the Agno River Integrated Irrigation Project (ARIIP) which serves up to 30,000 farmers planting on 12,530-ha lands in the Pangasinan towns of Asingan, Balungao, Bautista, Binalonan, Calasiao, Laoac, Manaoag, Mapandan, Mangaldan, Natividad, Sta. Maria, San Manuel, San Quintin, Sta. Barbara, Tayug and Villasis and Urdaneta City.

Pangilinan said more post-harvest facilities are needed to minimize rice wastage, which reaches more than a million metric tons a year. “We are importing around 1.7 million tons of rice. If we reduce wastage by way of post-harvest facilities, we also reduce our imports,” he said.

“[Rice] importation should only be a stopgap. What we really want is better harvest. And if we have this, we don’t have to import,” he said.

“We really have to provide agricultural modernization. Right now, what we have is subsistence farming. The little budget for it was even stolen,” said Pangilinan, referring to pork barrel allocations allegedly diverted to fake nongovernment organizations.

Jan. 1 is also the deadline imposed by Kalinga farmers and officials on the National Irrigation Administration for farm water to flow once more through the Upper Chico River Irrigation System (UCRIS) next year.

The rehabilitation of UCRIS, funded by a P425-million loan from the World Bank, had been too slow, disrupting the rice planting season of Tabuk City farmers.

Rains dumped by Typhoon “Ineng” (international name: Goni) in August damaged the system further, and had prevented farmers from completing their second rice cycle.

Kalinga produced 174,012 metric tons of rice in 2013, making it the top producer in upland Cordillera. Reports from Gabriel Cardinoza and Johanne Margarette Macob, Inquirer Northern Luzon; and Estanislao Albano, Contributor