IRRIGATION development was slow in 2010, with the proportion of irrigated lands to potential irrigable areas inching up by olLy 0.08 percentage point to 49.34 percent, according to a report released by the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS).

BAS, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA), noted that irrigated agricultural lands totaled 1.542 million hectares in 2010. This is only 4,000 hectares higher than the 1.539 million hectares of irrigated lands registered in 2009.

“Irrigation development in 2010 increased in all regions except in Western Visayas and Caraga. The highest irrigation development was still reported by Central Luzon at 81.3 percent, Central Visayas at 69.43 percent and Ilocos region at 65.52 percent,” the report read.

“In contrast, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao [ARMM]  had 15.23 percent of the potential irrigable areas covered with irrigation,” the report noted.

From 2006 to 2010 BAS said coverage increased by an annual average of 1.98 percent. The Davao region reported the biggest growth in irrigated areas at 9.43 percent. This was followed by Central Visayas, Northern Mindanao and Soccsksargen, with an average expansion of around 5 percent each.

“On the contrary, less than 1-percent yearly increase was noted each in the Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR), the  Ilocos region, Southern Tagalog, Bicol region, Western and Eastern Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula and the ARMM,” the report read.

BAS said on the average, almost half of the total irrigated farmlands were serviced by the national irrigation system. About 37.18 percent sourced irrigation water from communal irrigation system and the rest came from private irrigation system. By region, the major users of the national irrigation system were found in Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Western Visayas, Soccsksargen and ARMM, covering on the average around 65 percent to 69 percent of the regions’ irrigated farm areas.

“The communal type of irrigation system provided water to 68 percent of the irrigated areas in Central Visayas. About one fourth of the irrigated areas in CAR, Bicol region and Davao region used the private irrigation system,” the report read.

BAS said information on irrigation development provides a measure of the extent of development in enhancing the use of agricultural lands through irrigation.

Earlier, the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) said it would need P80 billion to generate 234,740 hectares of new areas, restore irrigation to 139,730 hectares, and rehabilitate irrigation facilities in 104,800 hectares of farmlands all over the country from 2012 to 2016.

For 2011 the DA alloted P12.79 billion, or 37 percent of the department’s total budget, to enable the NIA to undertake several local and foreign-funded irrigation projects, including repair and restoration and national systems.

The expansion of irrigated farmlands is one of the main strategies that the government will undertake in its bid to make the Philippines self-sufficient in rice by 2013.