Bulacan tillers want more irrigation

MALOLOS CITY, Philippines – Bulacan farmers are demanding more irrigation, saying that water from the Upper Pampanga River Integrated Irrigation System (UPRIIS) in Nueva Ecija is not enough.

Reports said crops in the towns of San Ildefonso and San Miguel have begun to wither due to inadequate irrigation, aggravated by lack of rainfall. 

Simeon Sioson of the Lambakin Agricultural Marketing Cooperative warned that hundreds of hectares of rice lands in the upland areas of San Miguel and in the service area of UPRIIS would not reach their production targets this summer.

For her part, Gloria Carillo, head of the provincial agriculture office, said inadequate irrigation affects about 1,000 hectares in both towns.

She said the UPRIIS allocates only 15 cubic meters per second which hardly reaches San Miguel and San Ildefonso towns, both located at the tail end of the UPRIIS service area. 

Carillo said the UPRIIS draws water from the Peñaranda River in southern Nueva Ecija.

“We are now coordinating with NIA (National Irrigation Administration) to increase irrigation allocation that it may reach Bulacan,” she said.

Carillo said her office and the Department of Agriculture are also coordinating with municipal agriculture officers to advise farmers to plant crops that don’t require much water such as corn, peanuts and watermelons.

Sioson also called on the NIA and the Department of Agriculture to make good their promise to rehabilitate small farm reservoirs in the upland areas of San Miguel. 

She said farmers in irrigated areas are asking for water pumps to draw water from creeks and rivers.