CAN you imagine farming and planting rice on a rain-fed land for more than four decades, and then you wake up one day to be told your land will be fully irrigated?
You may not believe it at first, but then you have no other choice but to thank the gods for your great fortune. Abundant irrigation is about to flow into your rice field all year.
To Filipino farmers living in the uplands, irrigation, in this case, made possible through solar power, is a game changer for the better, for their families and communities.
Like their parents and ancestors before them, Mrs. Jovita Teniza, 44, along with her farmers in San Vicente, Bagalay, Tayum, Abra, have been farming their rainfed rice fields all their lives and harvesting only one crop each year.
The cropping pattern in the locality is rice-fallow-fallow planted in the months of July-August with an average yield of 2.8 metric tons (MT) to 3.2 MT per hectare. The average landholding for the farmers is one-half hectare, according to Mr. Romero Ramos.
Mrs. Teniza and his fellow farmers in Barangay Bagalay, do not need to suffer from this cruel fate, all their lives.
With the full operation of the San Vicente Solar-Powered Irrigation System (SPIS), the farmers here now look forward to cultivating and planting their farms thrice, starting this year. That in effect would also triple their current income, barring the occurrence of natural calamities and their disastrous effects on local agriculture.
The San Vicente SPIS is one of four systems constructed in different hinterland areas of Abra that were turned over to the community beneficiaries by Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol today, May 23, 2019.
The other three systems, all located in Abra, are 1) Piddocol SPIS, Malabbaga, La Paz; Abot SPIS, Cabaruan, Danglas; and, Bangbangcag SPIS, Bangbangcag, Bucay.
All three systems, like the San Vicente SPIS, were constructed by the "Heal the World Energy Savings Corporation/JBRC Construction."
With a project cost of PHP 5, 998, 107.54, the design service area for each of the above SPIS is 10 hectares. However, each of the systems have varying potential irrigable area -- the Piddocol SPIS has 60 farmer beneficiaries cultivating 41.60 hectares; the San Vicente SPIS, has 18.50 hectares as potential area with 50 farmer beneficiaries; the Abot SPIS, 17 hectares and 40 farmer beneficiaries; and the Bangbangcag SPIS, 15.30 hectares, with 23 farmers as beneficiaries.
Secretary Piñol in his talk with the farmers said that each of SPIS can irrigate more than 50 hectares of rice land. The local government units (LGUs), can help the farmers by constructing more tanks and connect these to the solar pump, as a counterpart. For their part, the farmers can manage and properly distribute the water amongst themselves, Secretary Piñol told his listeners.
The SPIS uses the sun in a virtuous cycle of pumping irrigation water needed by the crops, from the source to the fields using solar energy.
In the SPIS, the pumps used for the transport of the water are equipped with solar cells. The solar energy absorbed by the cells is then converted into electrical energy via a generator which then feeds an electric motor driving the pump.
The SPIS do not need a diesel engine or local power grid, with its access not always guaranteed, to pump irrigation water. Besides their negative impact on the environment, the power supplies that diesel engines and power grids generates are very expensive.
The construction of SPIS is a flagship undertaking of the current administration to improve the livelihood of farmers, especially in hinterland communities that were hardly reached by the government's development services in previous years, like the uplands of Abra.
The SPIS is part of many development projects of the agriculture department (DA), aiming at increasing local farmers' productivity and as a consequence, improving their living conditions.
Secretary Piñol said that the governments of the Philippines and Israel are negotiating the implementation of hundreds of SPIS projects all over the Philippines. Abra Province, with its vast rain-fed rice lands, is a priority in the implementation of this flagship project.
With good seeds, proper management, and use of fertilizers, he said that farmers can increase their production to at least six tons per hectare.
Mrs. Teniza does not doubt the good Secretary. Some areas of Abra, with good year-round irrigation, produce from 4-6 tons per hectare, she said.
Aside from the Province of Abra, the DA-CAR Regional Agricultural Engineering Division (RAED) reported two more completed SPIS projects in Chaya, Mayaoyao, Ifugao; and Cudal, Tabuk City, Kalinga.
Another six SPIS projects are still being constructed in Abra, Apayao, Ifugao, Kalinga, and Mountain Province, the DA-CAR RAED report indicated.The use of SPIS in local agriculture, now and the future could play a vital part in addressing the lack of domestic and irrigation water, of energy in the countryside, and in managing the nation's persistent food crisis, according to Secretary Piñol.
For the Cordillera, there are 22 SPIS targeted for construction in CY 2019-2020, that would fully take advantage of the creeks and river systems of the region for food production purposes.