Irrigation relieves Kalinga farmers

TABUK CITY, Kalinga -- With the  free irrigation  service  provided under Republic Act  10969, about P70 million  is  saved by about  10,000 farmers being served  by the  Upper Chico River Irrigation System (UCRIS) in Tabuk City and Pinukpuk in Kalinga and Mallig in Isabela for three cropping seasons in a year.

This is great relief for the backbone of the nation, who for many years, are burdened with irrigation service fees alongside spiraling prices of agricultural inputs and low palay buying price.

Under the "Free Irrigation Service Act” signed by Pres. Rodrigo Duterte on Feb. 2, 2018,    small  farmers with landholdings of eight hectares and below are exempted from paying irrigation service fees for water derived from national irrigation systems and  communal irrigation systems. 

Engineer Noli Sabado of the Kalinga Provincial Irrigation Management Office said about 700 hectares in the UCRIS service area are still covered by the irrigation service fees as ownership is above 8.1 hectares.

What beneficiaries say

Samson Dalimag, 41, who farms 1.8 hectares,  said  he now saves P2, 500.00 for  irrigation fees during the dry cropping and P1, 800.00 in the wet cropping.   He is happy he can now spend what he can save from payment of irrigation service fee for the maintenance of his hand tractor, expenses on repair, oil and spare parts.

 “With maintained farming tools and machines, I can now easily start the next cropping. Everything is within the cropping calendar and surely, yield will be good,” he said.

He added that this is a big help to his family who  depend on farming as a source of living.  The five cavans intended for irrigation service fee every year would be savings for the education of his children, the father of four said.       For Edward Dayuwan who has five children, his savings from the free irrigation service is used to pay for their electric bills.

Duyuwan, who is tilling only one hectare, said the free irrigation fees is a big relief to his family’s expenses.  

Ricky Mamanteo, 41 years old with five children,  also revealed the many benefits his family got from free irrigation service.

Mamanteo, who is tilling seven hectares, admitted he has saved much from the three croppings that he did not pay for irrigation service fees.

“That’s why I invested on hollow-block making earning extra income for my family. If this free irrigation service will go through the years, I plan to build a bigger house in preparation for my children who will get married soon,” he said.

“The second biggest benefit I now enjoy from free irrigation service is that I can now rent a tractor which is three times in speed than a hand tractor (kuliglig) when preparing the rice fields.  I am always on track on the cropping calendar since I am now on mechanized farming,” he quipped.

Mamanteo also proudly shared that for the first time in his 20 years farming, he was able to bring his family for vacation outside of the province.

Adapting farming technologies, he   harvests not lower than 120 cavans per hectare.  

As a responsible farmer, Mamanteo does his share of maintaining the irrigation system.

“I mobilize my tenants, my family and relatives to clear the irrigation canal adjacent to our fields. I do not wait for NIA to tell us but we voluntarily advocate the “batug ko, dalus ko” in order to maintain the flow of water,” he explained. Even small wash-outs and canal damages, he voluntarily leads and shells out money from his own pocket to repair them

He now appeals to his fellow farmers through the irrigators associations to carry the obligation of clearing irrigation canals.

“It is ours. We use the project, and we remember always that without UCRIS, Tabuk City did not become the rice granary of the Cordilleras,” he said. -- JDP/PAB-PIA CAR, Kalinga