MANILA, Philippines - The Senate passed on third and final reading yesterday a bill that will exempt small farmers from paying irrigation fees.
Sen. Cynthia Villar, sponsor of Senate Bill 1465 or the proposed Free Irrigation Service to Small Farmers Act, said free irrigation for farmers should be institutionalized.
Villar said P38.4 billion was allotted for the National Irrigation Administration under this year’s budget, of which P2 billion is for the agency’s operating expenses.
“Filipino farmers and fisherfolk are still among the poorest in the country...Freeing farmers from the burden of paying irrigation fees will significantly reduce production cost, hasten productivity and increase the income of farmers. Farmers and fisherfolk comprise 40 percent of Filipinos below the poverty line,” she said.
Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito, co-author of the measure, said government support for irrigation services would encourage farmers to actively engage in or go back to agriculture.
Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto also supported the measure, but said the bigger challenge is not in exempting farmers from paying irrigation fees, but in building more dams and canals to irrigate their lands.
Recto noted that only 1.7 million of three million hectares of land are irrigated and many irrigation systems need to be repaired.