CATEEL, Davao Oriental—The P289.5-billion Cateel irrigation project was officially unleashed on Tuesday morning in Barangay Aragon here, providing year-round irrigation services for 1,600-hectare rice fields in 11 barangays across the municipality.
Considered the biggest dam in Mindanao, the project is funded by the World Bank, under the Mindanao Rural Development Project (MRDP), with the biggest chunk of the funds going to diversion works at P194.15 billion. The canalization work cost P86.97 billion; while the canal structures amounted to P8.44 billion.
The local government shared in the funds, with the assistance of the Department of Agriculture, which shouldered 40 percent of the 50-percent local government unit equity.
Gov. Corazon Malanyaon, Agriculture Undersecretary for Operations Emerson Palad, World Bank and MRDP representatives, local and provincial officials attended the blessing and inauguration ceremony.
Malanyaon said the project will boost the rice sufficiency of Cateel to 100 percent. Cateel is one of the three rice granaries in Davao Oriental, the other two being Lupon and Banaybanay towns.
It will provide sustainable irrigation water to approximately 1,600 hectares of suitable rice lands in barangays Taytayan, Poblacion, San Alfonso, Alegria, San Rafael, San Antonio, Santa Felomina, San Vicente, Abejod, San Miguel and Mainit.
The irrigation facility is also seen to allow a huge increase in palay production. Malanyaon said the sustainable irrigation infrastructure is the province’s road to self-sufficiency as it will bolster food security.
Malanyaon added that the project will provide the people of Davao Oriental the opportunities “to free themselves from the shackles of poverty.”
“We can keep the poor fed if we can correctly set our priorities. We can grow enough food and generate productive employment for the poor, while maintaining our natural-resource base and preserving biodiversity,” she emphasized.
Arnold Mendoza of the Philippine Fiber Industry and Development Authority, who is also a resident of Cateel, said the project is a big help to farmers. According to him, it will not only benefit rice farmers but also others into other crop production.
He said some 100 farmers engage in abaca industry can even benefit from the project, since most of them cross the Cateel River to the other side of Barangay Aragon.
Herminio Flores, who owns a one-and-a-half- hectare rice field in Cateel, expressed gratitude for the realization of the project. “Dili na mi magpaabot pa ug ulan…ug amihan [We will not wait for the rain…and the amihan season],” he said.
The project was rolled out in 2012, with the aim to irrigate 1,600 hectares; increase the cropping intensity; increase farmers’ income; and generate employment and revenues.
The work on the project was hampered by natural disasters that hit Davao Oriental. First was Typhoon Pablo which washed out 25 percent of work. It was restarted again, but two weather disturbances again damaged the project.
But Malanyaon pursued the project and determined to comply with policies of the funding agency. What could be a two-and-half-year project completion, Malanyaon said the project is seeing conclusion for seven months of work.
“This is a significant milestone in my wrap-up of my three-year term. This is a feeling of fulfillment of my dreams. It is a shared dream of addressing the primordial concerns on food security, productivity and poverty,” she said in her speech.
Davao Oriental has the biggest share of the funds from MRDP, a poverty-alleviation initiative implemented through the DA covering 26 provinces and 225 municipalities in Mindanao. MRDP initiative seeks to improve rural incomes and achieve food security through agri-fishery infrastructure, livelihood enterprise and biodiversity-conservation projects. Davao Oriental was allotted P425 million of which P261 million, went to the irrigation project.
With completion of the project, the DA also turned over farm machineries to the province under its Food Sufficiency Program.
PNA