April 01, 2009 06:06 PM Wednesday [ journal.com.ph ]
By: Cory Martinez
THE restoration and rehabilitation of irrigation facilities covering a total of 148,000 hectares of farmland and postharvest projects are set to be implemented starting this April that would benefit farming communities and create new jobs in the countryside, the Department of Agriculture said yesterday.
DA Secretary Arthur Yap said that the implementation of these projects, which will extend up to June this year, is part of the government’s Comprehensive Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program (CLEEP), an economic resiliency initiative aimed at helping Filipinos cope up with the deepening global financial contagion.
Yap explained that the rehabilitation of irrigation facilities this year will cover 48,000 hectares of land while the restoration phase of these projects will service an additional 100,000 hectares.
Rehabilitation involves minor repairs of canals and the sustenance of irrigation areas while restoration will entail the repair of canal structures, diversion works and excavations to make nonfunctional irrigated areas serviceable.
Based on the data from the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), the rehabilitation and restoration projects for irrigation facilities will benefit mostly irrigated lands in Mindanao and the North Luzon Agribusiness Quadrangle (NLAQ).
For Mindanao, the rehabilitation of irrigation facilities will cover 15,993 hectares while the restoration will cover another 31,781 hectares.
In NLAQ, Yap said, the rehabilitation will service an additional 17,865 hectares and the restoration another 42,971 hectares.
For the Metro Luzon Urban Beltway, excluding the National Capital Region, the target is the rehabilitation of facilities in 8,634 hectares and the restoration in 10,846 hectares.
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