The Department of Agriculture (DA) recently commissioned four units of solar-powered irrigation systems (SPIS) in four towns in Libmanan, Camarines Sur, in its bid to increase the rice output of the province next year.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said the SPIS will support the rice production program of the province.
The first four units are in the towns of Libmanan, Pula, San Fernando and Nabua. Piñol also said 12 more units of SPIS are undergoing construction and will be completed by the first quarter of 2019.
He said the area to be served by the solar-powered irrigation systems are rainfed areas where farmers harvest only once a year and produce only 3 metric tons per hectare.
“The installation of the SPIS will now allow them to plant twice a year, with a target yield of 6 MT per hectare per harvest,” the DA chief said in a Facebook post.
With the support of the national government, Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Ray Villafuerte said the province, which is currently ranked fourth among rice-producing areas in the country, could hike its output by 10 percent next year. Camarines Sur currently produces 683,385 MT of rice every year.
Piñol said a total of 169 units of solar-powered irrigation systems are currently under construction all over the country.
In August Piñol said the Duterte administration would spend some P43.7 billion to irrigate an additional 500,000 hectares over the next four years through SPIS to improve farm productivity.
Piñol said the President vowed to allocate at least P43.7 billion for the construction of around 6,250 SPIS until the end of his term. An SPIS, which could irrigate an average of 80 hectares, costs about P7 million.
“The [2019] budget will only allow us to build 10 additional units,” he said. “I told the President that the DA will have to abandon some of its nonessential programs and realign the funds to the SPIS program for 2019, with a target of at least 100 additional units.”
The additional 500,000 hectares would be able to produce at least 2 million MT of rice, according to Piñol.