President Duterte Fulfills Promise By Approving Free Irrigation For Farmers Starting 2017
Another important highlight of the 2017 national budget is
the government subsidy on the irrigation service fees (ISF) being paid by
farmers to the National Irrigation Administration (NIA).
The P2 billion additional allocation for NIA under the
proposed 2017 General Appropriations Act (GAA) is intended to cover the ISF collected
by the agency from farmers’ associations.
An accompanying Special Provision for this purpose specifies
that the P2 billion allocation will be used to cover the operating requirements
of NIA and the maintenance of existing irrigation facilities which were
previously funded out of the collections from ISF.
“Our farmers, who feed the nation, are among the poorest of
the poor who urgently need government support and intervention. At present,
they need to pay the irrigation service fee for NIA to irrigate their farms
when, in fact, what we need to pursue is the lowering of production costs so we
can achieve food security, encourage more citizens to engage in or go back to
farming, and improve the income of our small farmers,” said Senator Loren
Legarda, Chair of the Senate Committee on Finance.
The NIA is authorized to collect the ISF pursuant to
Republic Act No. 3601, but Legarda said it is time to amend the said law.
“This intervention in the budget is only the first step to
free our small farmers from the added burden of having to pay for irrigation
fees. What we really intend is to make it a policy of government,” the Senator
said.
Legarda is the co-author of the proposed Free Irrigation
Reform and Restructuring Act, which seeks to remove from NIA the functions of
maintaining irrigation projects and collecting irrigation services and other
fees.
Under the said measure, fees being collected by NIA from its
irrigation beneficiaries will be discontinued and the management and
maintenance of irrigation facilities will be turned over to the beneficiaries
and will be provided with professional management support.
“The free irrigation for farmers under the 2017 national
budget will be a big boost for the agriculture sector and we will continue to
support improvements in the sector through various measures and policies,
including the immediate passage of the proposed Free Irrigation Act,” added
Legarda.
During this year’s election campaign and even before President
Rody Duterte decided to run for the highest post in the land, he has
repeatedly said that irrigation water should be provided free to the country’s
small rice farmers to improve their productivity.
Source: Sunstar Manila
President Duterte Fulfills Promise By Approving Free Irrigation For Farmers Starting 2017
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December 19, 2016
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