TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — Irrigation projects here will get P4.7 billion in government funding until 2011.
Leo P. Cañeda, Department of Agriculture regional executive director for Eastern Visayas, said Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap has approved the four-year program that aims to raise Samar’s self-sufficiency in rice to 115% by that year from the current 56%.
The planned projects will irrigate up to 31,000 hectares of rice land in the three Samar provinces. The provinces of Samar, Northern Samar, and Eastern Samar have 81,006 hectares of rice area, but only 6,033 hectares are supported with irrigation facilities.
"That represents only 7% of the total farm area. By any measure and by any indicator, 7% is very low. That’s the reason why the rice productivity enhancement program is not getting anywhere," Mr. Cañeda said.
Northern Samar has only 2,116 hectares irrigated area out of 31,537 hectares rice fields. Eastern Samar has 2,286 hectares of land supplied with water out of 17,377 hectares rice farms. Samar province, which has the largest rice area of 32,092 hectares, has irrigation system in only 1,631 hectares. "About 93% is waiting to be provided with irrigation intervention in Samar area," Mr. Cañeda said.
Irrigation support will raise average yield per hectare to 4.5 metric tons from the current 2.82 MT. Mr. Cañeda said they have projected annual yield of 1.5 million MT once the project is completed. The region’s current production is only 207,000 MT a year. "This will increase Eastern Visayas’ contribution to national output from 6% to 8%," Mr. Cañeda said. — Sarwell Q. Meniano, BusinessWorld
Leo P. Cañeda, Department of Agriculture regional executive director for Eastern Visayas, said Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap has approved the four-year program that aims to raise Samar’s self-sufficiency in rice to 115% by that year from the current 56%.
The planned projects will irrigate up to 31,000 hectares of rice land in the three Samar provinces. The provinces of Samar, Northern Samar, and Eastern Samar have 81,006 hectares of rice area, but only 6,033 hectares are supported with irrigation facilities.
"That represents only 7% of the total farm area. By any measure and by any indicator, 7% is very low. That’s the reason why the rice productivity enhancement program is not getting anywhere," Mr. Cañeda said.
Northern Samar has only 2,116 hectares irrigated area out of 31,537 hectares rice fields. Eastern Samar has 2,286 hectares of land supplied with water out of 17,377 hectares rice farms. Samar province, which has the largest rice area of 32,092 hectares, has irrigation system in only 1,631 hectares. "About 93% is waiting to be provided with irrigation intervention in Samar area," Mr. Cañeda said.
Irrigation support will raise average yield per hectare to 4.5 metric tons from the current 2.82 MT. Mr. Cañeda said they have projected annual yield of 1.5 million MT once the project is completed. The region’s current production is only 207,000 MT a year. "This will increase Eastern Visayas’ contribution to national output from 6% to 8%," Mr. Cañeda said. — Sarwell Q. Meniano, BusinessWorld
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