CITY OF SAN FERNANO--The Pampanga Provincial Board (PB) is set to pass a resolution asking the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) to provide free irrigation to farmers here.

This is aimed to help farmers reduce their costs of production and increase their income.

Vice-Governor Dennis Pineda gave the assurance on such move on Monday in response to the appeal of 87 farmers' associations that received various farm machineries before June 30.

Water remains a costly input for farmers. For every hectare, rice growers pay irrigation fee in the form of two cavans of palay during wet season and three cavans of palay during dry season, according to Dr. Dan Pascual, a farmer-leader in Floridablanca town. A kilogram of palay now costs P19 each or P950 for a 50-kg cavan.

Salenga said 30,000 hectares of 51,000 hectares of irrigated ricelands in the province are served by NIA.

"NIA should consider the request of farmers. The provincial government is willing to lend equipment to help in the maintenance of irrigation canals," the vice governor said.

He said Governor Lilia Pineda and Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would surely support the request of farmers.

Board Members Rosve Henson and Dinan Labung said they would work for the approval of Canlas' proposed resolution.

Recently, the provincial government shelled out P1.5 million as a 10-percent counterpart to the Department of Agriculture project, according to Edilberto Salenga, acting provincial agriculturist.

The farmers' groups received seven mini-tractors, 12 hand tractors, four rice transplanters, six rice reapers, a combine harvester and 51 shallow tube wells.