The Philippines continues to import rice due to “weaknesses” in the implementation of the government’s irrigation program, rice watchdog Rice Watch and Action Network (R1) said over the weekend.
R1 said the lack of irrigation in some areas is a “major factor” behind the inability of the government to achieve its palay-production targets.
“We are alarmed over the gaps in our rice self-sufficiency targets caused by the lack of irrigation in rice-growing areas,” R1 lead convener Aurora Regalado said in a statement.
Despite the billions of pesos poured into the government’s irrigation program since 2010, R1 said the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) has failed to meet annual targets for providing irrigation to new areas. The NIA is currently under the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Food Security and Modernization.
Data from the NIA show that in 2013, out of the 108,145-hectare new areas it targeted to irrigate, the agency managed to achieve 55 percent, or 58,632 hectares. Also, out of its goal of restoring irrigation in 64,621 hectares, the NIA achieved 54 percent, or 34,574 hectares.
The agency, however, managed to overshoot its goal of repairing existing irrigation systems. The NIA said 1,809 kilometers of canals (478 lined canals and1331 unlined canals) and 1,495 structures/facilities were repaired in existing systems servicing 176,763 hectares, or 20,000 hectares more than its target for 2013.
“Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala said the small irrigation systems have been a big help but these are under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Soils and Water Management. What happened to the big irrigation systems that the NIA was supposed to deliver following the allocations given to them?” Regalado asked.
The group said the NIA should have delivered more than 200,000-hectare additional production area from 2010 to 2013 based on the Food Self-Sufficiency Program budget for irrigation from 2010 to 2016, amounting to P130 billion.
The NIA, for its part, has earlier assured that it will fast-track the implementation of irrigation projects to increase the country’s irrigated areas.
R1 issued the statement after the government announced that it will import an additional 250,000 metric tons of rice this year. Manila could import more depending on the severity of the impact of the El Niño on farmlands.
According to the National Food Authority, the procurement of 25-percent broken rice will be made under the government-to-government scheme.