Filipino farmers will no longer have to pay irrigation-service fees (ISFs) in 2017, after the Senate approved the additional P2.3-billion budget for the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), officials of the agency said on Monday.
However, the amount was P1.7-billion short of the P4-billion allocation that Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said the Senate Committee on Finance, chaired by Sen. Loren B. Legarda, has pledged to set aside as
subsidy for ISFs.
Despite this, NIA Spokesman Filipina Bermudez said the P2.3-billion additional budget was enough to subsidize the ISFs for 2017 and to make good President Duterte’s promise of providing free irrigation to farmers.
The additional allocation is on top of the P36.36-billion budget of the agency under the proposed General Appropriations Act of 2017, according to NIA Administrator Florencio Padernal.
Padernal said the P2.3 billion will subsidize the salaries and expenses of employees in the NIA and irrigators’ associations (IAs), as well as the operations and maintenance of existing irrigation facilities.
With the removal of the ISFs in 2017, the NIA chief said the production cost of farmers will go down by 6 percent.
Padernal said the additional budget is a “welcome move” from Congress to back President Duterte’s commitment to help Filipino farmers by giving them “free irrigation.”
“The systematic and organized delivery and distribution of water by the NIA and the IAs will be sustained,” Padernal said.
“This free ISF will also allow the agency to focus on the construction of major irrigation facilities, like dams, main canals, pumping stations and head gates of lateral canals, as well as restoration and rehabilitation of existing irrigation systems,” he added.
The Senate Committee on Finance approved the NIA’s total budget for 2017 on October 10.
Earlier, Piñol said when the ISFs are subsidized next year, the cost of palay production would be reduced to P8 per kilogram, from the current P11 per kg.
The NIA is mandated to collect ISFs from farmers as payment for irrigation water delivered by the agency.
The agency attached to the Office of the President uses the money for the operation and maintenance of irrigation systems in the country.