The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) recently turned over 106 units of portable irrigation pumps to farmers in the town of Cabaroan, Ilocos Norte.
The portable irrigation pumps, costing a total of P22.6 million, will boost agricultural production in Cabaroan and will help farmers survive during the dry season, when water in rivers run dry.
The irrigation pumps will provide irrigation to a total of 238 hectares of agricultural lands, benefiting a total of 256 farmers belonging to the Cabaroan Agrarian Reform Community (ARC), DAR Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer Felicidad Dumaguing said.
Many areas in Cabaroan remain rain-fed or dependent on rain for their irrigation.
“This pump irrigation project will address the ARC’s problem of extreme dryness during summer, especially if there is an El Niño phenomenon where there is absence of rain that lasts for months,” Dumaguing said.
Dumaguing said that based on the DAR’s studies, the use of these irrigation pumps would increase farmers’ yield by 10 percent.
“This irrigation project is expected to boost the economic condition of the ARC,” Dumaguing added.
According to the DAR–Ilocos Region Information Office, to get water, pumps need shallow-tube wells.
Part of the pump irrigation project of the DAR was to drill shallow-tube wells in the area before the units were turned over.
For the 106 units of pumps, the DAR drilled 112 shallow-tube wells.