Concerned government agencies on irrigation gathered at the Department of Agriculture (DA) on May 2, 2019 for a meeting on the proposed National Irrigation Map (NIM).
Representatives from the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), the Bureau of Agricultural and Fisheries Engineering (BAFE), the Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM), the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech), and DA officials attended the meeting.
During the meeting, Agriculture Secretary Manny F. Piñol stressed that the group must come up with an integrated master plan for the creation of the NIM and plans of action over the proposed 6,200 units of Solar-Powered Irrigation System (SPIS) to be established by an Israeli agro-industrial company.
“Irrigation is not only about providing water but it is also about managing our water resources,” Piñol said.
The agri chief also instructed BAFE to prepare a memorandum directing its regional counterparts to work closely with NIA’s regional counterparts in the identification process. The inter-agency group is set to fast track the identification of potential areas for SPIS. He also asked the group to help the regional offices of DA to come up with a detailed modular design for the irrigation facility.
“The modular design of their proposed irrigation facility should consider open sources, impounding, and deep-well areas in the region,” Piñol said.
“This is the only way we can protect our farmers from the adverse effect of El Niño. We don’t want to be sorry later for not doing the things we know we can somehow be prepared for,” he added.
Meanwhile, DA is also set to draft a Memorandum for an SPIS cooperation project with the Israeli government.
According to Piñol, the President already gave his go-signal in coordinating with the Israeli government on the proposed P44-billion (B) loan program for the SPIS project.
The Israeli-designed SPIS aims to increase potential capacity of the country’s rice industry by 1.4 million metric tons (MMT) and to adopt advance agricultural practices such as fertigation.
The completed NIM will be submitted and subject for approval of the Investment Coordination Committee of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA-ICC).
“We are trying to submit everything with the NEDA-ICC by June, and we are hoping that it will be included in the funding program by the end of the year,” Piñol said. ### (Kristel Merle, DA-AFID)
