While other towns splurge their funds on barangay gymnasiums, tarpaulins announcing awards received and endless fiesta celebrations, the old town of Taraka, Lanao del Sur decided to invest on six units of the Solar-Powered Irrigation System (SPIS) and a huge Solar-Powered Water System (SPWS) costing over P100-M.
The SPIS is expected to irrigate at least 600-hectares of fertile lands in the periphery of Lake Lanao while the SPWS will provide safe drinking water for the town’s 25,000 residents who for ages relied on the unsafe water of Taraka River for their household needs.
Taraka, one of the oldest towns of Lanao del Sur, is the first enrollee in the Mindanao Water Supply Program initiated by the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) which links local government units with the Development Bank of the Philippines to enable them to build solar irrigation and water systems for remote Mindanao communities.
Shortly after the Dec. 6, 2019 launching of the MinDAWater Supply Program, a joint undertaking of MinDA with the Dept. of Interior and Local Govt. and DBP, officials of Taraka were the first to ask MinDA for inclusion in the program.
MinDA assisted the Taraka Local Government in preparing the Master Plan for Development of the town and packaged the loan proposal which was submitted to DBP and processed even at the height of the COVID 19 lockdown.
A loan fund of P215-M, which included the purchase of road building equipment for the town, was approved and released by DBP late in 2020.
In January this year, MinDA officials, DBP President Emmanuel Herbosa, Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr. and other stakeholders, joined the proud leaders and farmers of Taraka in the groundbreaking ceremonies for the SPIS and SPWS.
By the second week of June, Mayor Nashiba Sumagayan, who gave up her professorial chair in the Mindanao State University to take over the mayorship of the town from her husband, Odin, now the vice mayor, expects the SPIS units to start pumping out irrigation water to allow farmers to plant five times every two years.
That would boost local rice production from the current 2 to 3 metric tons per hectare once a year to 12 metric tons two harvests per year or an estimated income of P168,000 per hectare per year at P14 per kilo from a very low P42,000.
The Taraka Solar-Powered Water System which is equipped with a filtration equipment is expected to be completed before the end of the year.
To support Taraka’s Rice Production Program, MinDA has included the establishment of a modern Rice Processing Facility in the European Union Funded MINPAD RISE Program.
The Rice Processing Facility will complete the value chain in the Taraka Rice Production Program aims to produce milled and packed quality rice both for the local market and for supermarket chains.
MinDA has chosen Taraka as the model town for rural development through self-reliance, the first of several municipalities which would be selected and supported in the Bangsamoro Region to serve as inspiration for others.
When the first gush of irrigation water would flow out of the SPIS pipes by June this year, Taraka will show to other towns the correct direction of governance which aims to lift people from poverty through the proper identification of needs and efficient use of resources.
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