The Arroyo administration has allocated P27.5 billion for priority irrigation projects nationwide to enhance farm production and increase market goods supply, Malacañang said in a press statement yesterday.

Director General Cerge Remonde of the Presidential Management Staff said targeted are four major irrigation projects costing P21.49 billion and several small irrigation projects worth P6 billion. Remonde said the National Irrigation Administration has been directed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to release P500 million per month for small irrigation projects, of which P200 million is for the North Luzon Agribusiness Quadrangle, another P200 million for the Mindanao Super region, and P100 million for other regions.

He said irrigation will allow more intensive farming and multi-cropping to reduce seasonal harvesting, increase income of farmers,

and help improve the living standards of poor agricultural communities.

Under the Arroyo administration's massive infrastructure program, four major irrigation projects amounting to P21.49 billion will be constructed by the NIA to benefit 92,464 farm families and increase palay production by 552,478 metric tons per year or 359,111 MTs of rice annually.

Remonde said these nationwide irrigation projects are seen to double farmer incomes from the current average of P24,218 per hectare to P53,650 per hectare per year.

Income of farmer beneficiaries will increase by 119 percent or P31,599 per hectare annually from P26,391 to P57,950 while the income of farmers whose lands are watered by small irrigation projects will increase by 124 percent or P27,306 per hectare per year from P22,045 to P49,351, he said.

The four major irrigation projects now being undertaken by the government include the Agno River Integrated Irrigation and the Kabulnan Irrigation Projects Phase II which are slated for completion next year. Two others, the Banaoang Pump Irrigation Project and the Casecnan Multi-Purpose Irrigation Project in NLAQ, will be completed in 2010 and 2012, respectively.

Remonde said an initial fund of P1.5 billion has been released to NIA to implement the small irrigation projects, which is expected to increase rice production to 859,053 MTs per year.

By 2013, it is estimated that these small irrigation projects will be completed, increasing the country's projected 12.5 million MTs rice production to 13.4 million MTs.*

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