DAVAO CITY—Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol turned over the first of five solar-powered irrigation systems (SPIS) in the Caraga region to farmers in Veruela town, Agusan del Sur, to enable them to plant rice twice a year.
The Caraga office of the Department of Agriculture (DA) said the irrigation facility was set up in Barangay Sinobong in Veruela, which Barangay Chairman Angelo D. Jalucon of the Cautan Sinobong Farmers Association (CASFA) received from Piñol. The association has 58 members.
The facility costs P6 million to install and is equipped with a 25-horsepower pump that could irrigate up to 60 hectares. It could cover more areas if additional pipes were added.
The solar-powered irrigation project aims to increase rice production by providing the water needed by farmers to irrigate their farms and enable them to plant and harvest at least twice a year.
“Compared to the big National Irrigation Administration irrigation systems that are costly and require millions of pesos for its construction, the SPIS is cheaper and can be built within three months,” Piñol said in the recent turnover program.
Piñol said he hopes to introduce soon another technology called “fertigation” alongside the turnover of more solar-powered irrigation facilities. “As the name implies, fertigation is a process in which fertilizer is applied with the irrigation water. Through this technology, fertilization becomes more accurate and uniform for every rice area.”
The Caraga regional office of the DA said the solar-powered project “goes in tandem with the Easy Access Credit Loan Program called Production Loan Easy Access [PLEA] that gives farmers the access to a loan of only 6-percent interest rate without collateral payable in two years for rice farmers.” The DA said the two flagship programs, the solar-powered irrigation and the PLEA program, would aid farmers in “finally graduating from the cycle of lending from loan sharks.”
In 2019 a budget of P3.4 billion has been allocated for easy access credit financing under the Agricultural Credit and Policy Council (ACPC).
During the turnover ceremony and open forum with farmers, Piñol said he would allocate P5 million under the PLEA program as initial fund for the farmers in Veruela, Agusan del Sur. He said each farmer may avail himself/herself of the loan “provided that they undergo the orientation, financial literacy program and register under the Farmers Registration System.”
Piñol also directed DA-Caraga Regional Director Abel James I. Monteagudo to conduct a “rice derby” in the municipality of Veruela to determine the most suitable variety of rice for the locality.
The rice derby is a technology demonstration initiative of the DA where rice seed companies would be given a 1-hectare area to showcase the yield capacity and performance of their product. The DA would ask the local government to identify a 5-hectare area for the said project, preferably those that benefit from the solar irrigation system.
Piñol also assured funding for a 1.5-kilometer farm-to-market road to link the Veruela farms to the barangay center. He said the fund would be sourced from the 2020 budget. He said he instructed Monteagudo to establish a multiplier farm for native pigs and native chicken in the municipality.