NIA TO EXTEND IRRIGATION WATER TO DAGUPAN

DAGUPAN CITY – The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) is willing to provide water that will irrigate almost 50 hectares of farm lots in Barangays Salisay and Mangin, 

This was disclosed by City Agriculture Officer Emma J. Molina after meeting the NIA officers on August 14 at the Public Alert and Response Monitoring Center (PARMC), pointing out that the irrigation water will come from adjacent Calasiao.   

Molina was accompanied in the meeting by officials of the two barangays namely Benedict G. Cayabyab of Mangin and Condrado C. Muyalde of Salisay.

“We are now in the preparatory stage and hopefully NIA will be able to launch the project before the end of the year and by 2016 the irrigation will be in full swing,” said Molina.

Molina said that around 289 hectares of land in the city is used for planting crops like rice, corn, watermelon, mongo and peanuts but only for a short period of time.

“This is due to the fact that of the 289 hectares only 69 hectares are presently irrigated, so malaki pa rin yung potential for possible irrigation service. Now that NIA saw the potential, hopefully we can convince the other farmers to invest. What is important is that the city was able to seek the assistance of NIA to support the needs of farmers for water,” said Molina.

Accordingly, the farmers will have to be organized first and establish the Farmer’s Irrigators Association to study the capacity of NIA to provide water supply by taking into consideration the need also of Calasiao for water.

“The city’s rice production is averaging 4.5 tons for every 69 hectares of land. So if we could irrigate the remaining farm lots we will be able to double our production that will largely boost rice supply in the city. Hindi man kalakihan but it has significant effect on the livelihood and on the city’s economy especially on our farmer’s capacity to earn,” said Molina.

NIA responded to the request made by Mayor Belen T. Fernandez to address the need for irrigation water in the city.

“This has been our dream that our farmers will have  second cropping instead of one cropping only per year,” added Molina. (Joseph C. Bacani/CIO/Aug. 14, 2015)