THE NATIONAL Irrigation Administration (NIA) said on Tuesday that it has turned over 16 irrigation works to irrigators associations (IA) in Bulacan.
“About 15 IAs with 4,466 farmer-beneficiaries will benefit from 2023 completed projects of Bulacan (Irrigation Management Office),” the NIA statement said.
As of 2023, the NIA has completed 68% of its national irrigation development commitments, servicing an estimated 2.11 million hectares, with 1.1 million hectares still to be irrigated.
NIA Administrator Eduardo G. Guillen told BusinessWorld earlier that the agency is seeing a possible 2% increase in irrigated lands this year.
Additionally, the agency said that it would increase the operations and maintenance subsidy of irrigation projects to P500 per hectare per cropping area in accordance with NIA Memorandum Circular 147 of 2023.
NIA had said that the increase in the rate of operations subsidy would be to augment the higher cost of materials and labor. The previous subsidy was at P150 per hectare per planted area.
It added that 152 IAs from Bulacan are set to receive the new subsidy scheme. — Adrian H. Halili
