Irrigated agricultural lands increase

MANILA, Philippines - The country’s total irrigated agricultural lands rose slightly last year from a year ago as the government implemented programs aimed at improving irrigation systems.

The Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) said in its Agricultural Structure and Resources report dated June 2012 that 1.57 million hectares of agricultural lands were covered by irrigation last year, up by 1.9 percent from the 1.54 million hectares in 2010.

For the years 2007 to 2011, the BAS noted that the area of irrigated lands went up by an average of 2.25 percent each year.

The proportion of the country’s irrigated lands to potential irrigable areas last year was at 50.11 percent, also showing an improvement from 2010’s.

“This irrigation development was 0.77 percentage point higher than last year’s record,” it said.

National Irrigation Administration headAntonio Nangel attributed the improvement in the irrigated agricultural areas to the programs the government implemented last year which involved putting up new irrigation systems and the rehabilitation of existing systems.

“The reason for the increase is due to the irrigation development that we have done in 2011 or about 35,000 hectares generated new area,” he said in a text message yesterday.

He said that for this year, the NIA aims to raise the total number of irrigated areas further to support agricultural output.

“For this year 2012, we have a program area to be developed for new and restored area of 135,000 hectares or a total of 1.705 million hectares developed by the end of this year which will boost more output in our production,” he said.

The BAS noted that the biggest average yearly expansion in irrigated lands from 2007 to 2011 was reported in the Davao region.

The irrigated areas in Davao region was up by an average of 8.82 percent each year from 2007 to 2011 to reach 75,643 hectares last year.

Northern Mindanao came in second with irrigated areas in 2011 climbing by an average of 6.58 percent each year to 67,958 hectares from 2007.

The SOCCSKSARGEN (South Cotabato-Cotabato-Sultan Kudarat-Sarangani and General Santos City) region was the third region with the biggest average increase per year from 2007 to 2011 with its irrigated areas rising by 5.54 percent to 103,210 hectares last year.

The restoration and construction of irrigation systems is being implemented by the government to support the production of rice and other staples in the country.

Last year, the country’s rice output reached 16.68 million metric tons (MT).

The country aims to attain self-sufficiency in rice after next year with the rice production target set at 20.04 million MT.