CATARMAN, Northern Samar – The Northern Samar Irrigation Management Office has installed solar-powered irrigation pumps to support rice farmers in the province, enhancing their productivity and income.
Funded under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, the initiative aims to improve farmers’ capacity and increase their income, ultimately enhancing their quality of life.
Georden Lemsic, division manager of the Northern Samar Irrigation Management Office, emphasized the national government’s commitment, through the National Irrigation Administration, to providing effective and efficient irrigation systems to farmer-beneficiaries.
Currently, two additional solar pump projects are underway. One is in Barangay Gebulwangan, Catarman, covering 49.40 hectares with a budget of P35 million for testing this quarter. The other, in Barangay Flormina, Mondragon, is almost complete, covering 79 hectares with a budget of P65 million.
Various factors affect rice production in the province, including climate change, poor drainage, inadequate irrigation facilities, land conversion, input costs, calamities, crop damage, and pests and diseases.
According to the 2023 report by the NIA, there are 16,545 potentially irrigable hectares, of which 11,682 hectares are under development, leaving 4,772 hectares for further development.
In the last quarter of 2023, Abundio M. Tagalog, president of CM Recto-San Jose Irrigators Association Inc., accepted a P35 million project aiming to irrigate 60 hectares of farmland and benefit 34 potential farmers.
Tagalog expressed gratitude to the national government for the project, ensuring its long-term use to benefit member-beneficiaries, with support from barangay officials and partner agencies. (Aileen Diaz/PIA Northern Samar)
