To attain rice self-sufficiency by 2020, a total of 500,000 hectares of farmlands across the country need to be supplied with water.
This is based on the computation presented by Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol to President Duterte, which served as a basis for the establishment of Solar Powered Irrigation Systems (SPIS) in strategic areas within the Philippines.
“A rice field producing four metric tons per year without effective irrigation can produce six metric tons two times a year when consistent water supply is maintained. With that estimate, we’ll be able to yield an additional eight metric tons per hectare every year from the additional 500,000 hectare irrigated farmland, which is equivalent to four million metric tons. This is enough to feed our people, even with post-harvest losses considered,” Piñol explained.
“We need to think outside the box if we want to achieve rice self-sufficiency,” Piñol stressed during the turnover of the first fully functional SPIS in Brgy. New Janiuay, M’lang, North Cotabato on August 20, 2018.
The rice fields in Brgy. New Janiuay can now harvest twice a year at 120 sacks per hectare per cropping season with the full operation of the P7.9-million worth SPIS. This is almost double its previous yield of 80 sacks per hectare once a year.
“Our country has a 3.9 million (M) hectares of land for farming, but only 1.2M hectares has effective irrigation. This leaves us with 2.7M hectares of unirrigated farmlands,” Piñol explained.
“Remember that food grows where water flows, and we need good and efficient irrigation systems if we want to attain our rice self-sufficiency target,” he added.
SPIS presents a promising solution on catering the irrigation needs of the country. Aside from being more sustainable and environment-friendly as compared to fuel driven irrigation pumps, solar powered irrigation is cheaper and takes shorter time to build than dams.
The agri chief further explained that the problem with big dams is that it takes too long to build.
“We cannot wait for long considering the very fast rate our population is growing,” Piñol said.
According to the agri chief, at two million per year population growth, we need to irrigate 80,000 hectares of land per year to feed the ballooning Filipino population. Right now, the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) can only irrigate 30,000 to 40,000 hectares/year, which results on a constant backlog.
Presently, 169 SPIS are being constructed across the country and is expected to grow in numbers with the P44 billion approved budget
Bernie Penaso, the President of New Janiuay farmers association expressed his gratitude for the SPIS turned-over to them.
“This will greatly help us in boosting our production. We promise to do our best to make our farmlands more productive. When you (Sec. Piñol) return, you will see that this project was not put into waste,” he said. ### (Carlos Cezar Baldosa, DA-AFID)
