Former Vice President and senatorial aspirant Jejomar Binay called on the national government on Friday, Feb. 11, to provide farmers with more irrigation facilities and water sources to increase the country's agricultural productivity and keep food prices stable.

Binay aired this concern during the third leg of his campaign sortie in Southern Tagalog.

“May mga magsasakang umaasa pa rin lang sa ulan upang makapagtanim, kung kaya’t kailangan suportahan sila ng iba pang pwedeng pagkukunan ng irigasyon (There are still farmers who depend on rain for their farming, that's why it is essential for them to be have other sources of irrigation),” Binay said.

“Imbes na sila ay nakakapagtanim ng buong taon ay nagiging one cropping season lang (Instead of bring able to plant the whole year, they only have one cropping season),” he added.

According to Binay, the National Irrigation Authority’s (NIA) total developed service area stood at around two million hectares in 2020 from the country’s 3.1 million hectares of irrigable land.

He proposed for the construction of small-scale irrigation facilities to further improve the farmers' production and avoid shortage of crops.

“Aside from depending on large-scale structures like dams, the government can build more small-scale irrigation facilities including Small Water Impounding Project (SWIP), small diversion dams (SWD), small farm reservoirs (SFR), and shallow tube wlls,” the former vice president said.

Binay explained that the SWIP, SWD, and SFR collect rain or stream water in a containment structure or reservoir while shallow tube wells draw water from aquifers for irrigation use.

“Ito ay existing na mga proyekto ng pamahalaan ngunit kailangan pang paramihin upang mas marami pang maabot na mga maliliit na magsasaka (This is an existing program of the government. However, it must be improved further to increase the number of farmers benefiting from it," Binay said.

“Marami tayong maliliit na ilog, lalo na sa mga mabubundok na lugar, at iba pang water bodies na maaaring i-tap para sa mga proyektong ito (We have a lot of small rivers especially in mountainous areas which can be tapped for this project. There are also a lot of bodies of water which can be added to the project,” he added.

Binay also suggested that these structures can also be used for aquaculture as well as flood prevention and control.

“Instead of rainwater merely wasting away and causing floods, we can store them for future productive use, especially during dry months,” he said.

“In the long-term, the government can entice more Filipinos to go to the agricultural sector by improving irrigation facilities, providing farming inputs, as well as developing a critical mass of agricultural professionals in the country and investing in research and development,” the former vice president added.

In 2020, the country’s agriculture sector contributed 10.2 percent to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), a slight increase from the 9.2 percent registered in 2019.

However, the sector has steadily declined from 2015 to 2019 according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).