Sen. Manny Villar last week pushed for a review of the implementation of the law modernizing the agriculture and fisheries sectors which mandates a 30 percent share of the national budget for irrigation projects.
"Republic Act 8435 is a landmark legislation that should equip our country to achieve food security. We should see to it that the law is being implemented to the letter," Villar stressed.
In filing Proposed Senate Resolution No. 897, Villar urged the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food to review the implementation of RA 8435 or the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA) of 1997 as amended by RA 9281.
Under Section 112 of the amended statute, the law requires an initial budget of P20 billion for the first year of its implementation and a continuing annual appropriation of P17 billion thereafter until the year 2015 which is an increment to the annual appropriated budget of the Department of Agriculture.
Section 111 states that allocation and disbursement of 30 percent from said amount must be allocated and disbursed for irrigation projects.
"This law was amended specifically as the govern-ment’s response to develop and reform the country’s agricultural industry. It is lamentable that it cannot be fully implemented due to funding problems," he said.
Villar noted that the Philippines has a total rice land area of 4.1 million hectares and according to the figures culled from the National Irrigation Admini-stration (NIA), only about 1.43 million hectares are irrigated either through national, communal or private irrigation systems, the same irrigation systems that were designed and developed in 1963.
Based on the December 2007 figures from NIA, irrigation in large tracts of farmlands especially in major rice-producing areas including among others Region III which has 229,627 hectares, Region II with 273,201 hectares and Region XII with 209,548 hectares of farmlands respectively, are yet to be developed and provided with adequate irrigation systems.
"Although it may be a welcome progress to put in funds for the remaining unirrigated farmlands, it is however, cheaper and far more realizable at the shorter term for the government to focus its investments on the repair, restoration and rehabilitation of the existing irrigation systems than build new ones," Villar believes.
NIA reported that irrigation systems covering about 368,000 hectares of the 1.43 million hectares irrigated rice lands in the country are defective and that its restoration would cost government an estimated P22 billion.
"This translates to 368,000 hectares of waterless and unproductive rice lands and if pegged at 80 bags yield of palay per hectare, this would amount to a reduction of about 29.40 million bags of palay production per harvest. This is not good considering the 2008 rice crisis," he said.
Villar lauded NIA for the rehabilitation of irrigation facilities covering around 47,000 hectares of rice lands that need re-irrigation in 2006.
He pointed out however, that NIA still needs P6 billion a year to fund the rehabilitation or remaining defective facilities to put back these idle rice lands into production.
"Agricultural sector accounts for about one-fifth of the country’s Gross Domestic Product, while over one-third of the population is employed in agriculture or agriculture-related industries and the continuing weak and limited investments support by the government to this industry sector doesn’t speak well of the policies and objectives by which the law was principally drafted," he said. /MP
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