Old irrigation canals aid Bulacan farmers
CITY OF MALOLOS—Rice plants of a group of farmers in this city have been spared from the worst effects of the dry spell, particularly toward the end of the dry season cropping from January to April, due to the continued use of old local irrigation canals.
Melencio Domingo, chair of the Santor Farmer Irrigators Association and a beneficiary of the Angat Maasim River Irrigation System (Amris), said members are expecting a good harvest next week despite a late planting schedule in January and the stoppage of irrigation supply from the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) that ended on April 30.
Domingo said farmers were able to sustain their crops using “Sapang Baliwag,” a traditional irrigation source made up of old canals in Barangay Santor.
“Since time immemorial, this place has already been called Sapang Baliwag. These are old canals in Barangay Santor near the industrial sites in the city,” Domingo told the Inquirer on Monday.
He added that some water sources come from nearby industrial establishments, noting that certain discharges have been beneficial, while others remain a concern for rice production.
Dropping yields
Despite the irrigation support, Domingo said their yield this season dropped to about 45 to 50 cavans per hectare, lower than the usual 80 to 100 cavans recorded in previous dry seasons. A cavan typically weighs 50 kilos.
He also raised concerns that even non-tail-end barangays were affected by reduced irrigation supply from Amris.
However, Francisco Clara, head of the Water Control Coordinating Unit of NIA, said the impact of water reduction was felt across Amris-served areas due to multiple factors, including damaged rubber gates at Bustos Dam, declining water levels in Angat Dam, lack of rainfall, informal settlers and garbage accumulation in waterways.
Clara said water allocation was reduced from 35 cubic meters per second to 30 cms toward the end of the cropping season, as priority was given to Metro Manila’s water supply requirement.
AMRIS, which sources water from Angat Dam via Bustos Dam, serves more than 22,000 farmers irrigating about 27,000 hectares of rice fields across Bulacan and Pampanga.
Clara added that advisories were issued to farmers, particularly in tail-end areas, due to expected reductions in irrigation supply.
He noted that farmers who avoided late planting and had better water access were able to harvest more than 100 cavans per hectare.
The regular wet season cropping runs from August to November.
As of Monday, Angat Dam’s water level stood at 182.57 meters above sea level, about three meters lower than the 185.56 meters recorded a week earlier.
