ANTIQUE – Farmers could now double their rice production with them already having sufficient water supply for their farm lands.
San Remigio’s Mayor Margarito Mission, Jr. said that together with the Department of Agrarian Reform’s (DAR) Assistant Regional Director Anthony Arostique and the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) officials they turned over to the Osorio I Farmer’s Irrigator’s Association, Inc. the P6-million Communal Irrigation System (CIS) during a ceremony held in Barangay Osorio I yesterday, January 27.
“The CIS will provide water to 36 hectares of rain-fed area in Barangay Osorio I,” Mission said.
He also said that there are 40 farmers who own and till the rain-fed rice lands who will benefit from the CIS that is implemented under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program-Irrigation Component of DAR and NIA.
Before the farmer-beneficiaries were only reliant on the rain for them to be able to plant rice that is why they could only plant once a year during the rainy season.
“If a farmer could only harvest 50 sacks of rice in a year, but with the CIS they could already plant twice a year enabling them to double their production,” he said.
He said that farmer-beneficiaries could now plant during the dry and rainy season with the CIS already.
The irrigation system then sources out water from the nearby Osorio Creek.
The mayor also assured the farmer’s association of the local government unit assistance such as in the maintenance of the CIS. (PNA)
