In a bid to curb the effects of the El Niño phenomenon, the Department of Agriculture (DA) has allocated a P250 million initial budget for the agency’s solar irrigation project.
Agriculture spokesperson Assistant Secretary Arnel De Mesa said DA’s solar irrigation project will be implemented this year.
“Sa ngayon ay mayroon P250 million na initial budget na i-aallocate sa solar irrigation project (Currently, we have allocated P250 million for our solar irrigation project),” he told reporters on Monday, Jan. 15.
The DA official said the P250 million initial budget is still very small, but he is confident that Secretary Francisco “Kiko” Tiu Laurel Jr. will find a way to increase the budget of the irrigation project.
“Maliit pa lang ito, simula pa lang, but definitely the secretary will find ways para magdagdagan itong initial P250 million (It's still small, it's just the beginning, but definitely the secretary will find ways to add to this initial P250 million),” he said.
According to De Mesa, the areas in the country typically impacted by El Niño would be given priority for this project.
“If you look doon sa report ng PAGASA, karamihan ng tinatamaan El Niño ay itong Western portion ng Luzon at some areas din ng Northern Luzon. Iyan ang areas na madalas maapektuhan ng El Niño (If you look at PAGASA’s report, most of the areas affected by El Niño are the Western portion of Luzon and some areas of Northern Luzon as well. Those are the areas that are often affected by the El Niño phenomenon)” he noted.
“Last year mayroon na rin tayong mga nasimulan, pero itong P250 million ay additional budget for this year, bukod sa cloud seeding operations ( Last year we also had some things started, but this P250 million is an additional budget for this year, apart from cloud seeding operations),” the official added.
Last week, the agriculture department said that it has begun a series of cluster meetings for the Masagana Rice Industry Development Program to plan and fine-tune intervention plans to reduce the impact of an expected prolonged dry spell caused by El Nino on rice output.
Per DA, the dry season for rice production lasts from December to May, and rice fields require extra water from irrigation systems.
“It takes about five liters of water to produce a kilo of rice,” the agency noted.
It had previously been determined that about 275,000 hectares of rice fields would be at risk from the effects of an El Niño-induced dry spell. The agriculture department said early indications suggest that number could decline given the high water elevation of some dams used to irrigate rice fields.