Davao City – Could a 4th Class Municipality with a poverty incidence of 66.86% invest P100-M to provide drinking water to its constituents and irrigate 1,000-hectares and still recover its money?
The answer is a resounding Yes!
The town of Taraka, Lanao del Sur will show how this could be done after its leaders agreed to build six units of Solar-Powered Water Systems for potable water and irrigation costing an estimated P100-M.
On Wednesday last week, after a three-day Learning Tour of development models in Central Mindanao, including a Solar-Powered Irrigation System (SPIS) in my hometown, M’lang, Taraka officials decided they have to rely on their own funds to improve the lives of their people.
Known as home to the oldest mosques in the main island of Mindanao, Taraka has about 2,000 hectares of rice farms which rely on rainwater thus limiting planting to only once a year.
Its residents source their water needs from the small Taraka River which winds through the town proper.
Mayor Nashida Sumagayan and her husband, Vice Mayor Aminoden Sumagayan, sought out the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) during the launching of the MinDAWater Program on Dec. 6, 2019 to ask for help in addressing their problems.
On Wednesday, I presented to them models on Local Government Self-Reliance which I started when I was Governor of North Cotabato.
These self-reliance programs were under an Economic Enterprise Office which offered the following:
– Plow-Now-Pay-Later using provincial government-owned tractors;
– Plant-Now-Pay-Later, a program started by my predecessor, the late Governor Rosario Diaz which I continued which offered planting materials payable upon harvest;
– Fly-Now-Pay-Later which offered No-Interest Loans for placement fees for workers seeking jobs abroad;
– Study-Now-Pay-Later which financed students in college payable when they start working.
With this formula, I convinced the Taraka officials that the LGU could avail of a loan from our partner bank, the Development Bank of the Philippines, to fund Solar-Powered Irrigation Systems to provide drinking water and irrigation to at least 1,000-hectares.
The Solar-Powered Irrigation System which would cost an estimated P100-M will not only provide drinking water to the town but an income-earning project for the LGU, as well.
The computation I presented to convince them was very simple:
– The SPIS will allow the farmers to plant rice twice a year or even three times if they are mechanised;
– Each irrigation water beneficiary will be asked to remit to the Economic Enterprise Office of the LGU P6,000 per hectare every harvest time. This means that if the farmer harvests twice a year, he will remit P12,000. This is still a lot less than the P15,000 he spends for fuel for their water pumps every planting season or P30,000 for two croppings;
– With 1,000 hectares covered by the irrigation at P12,000 fee every year, the LGU Economic Enterprise Office will generate P120-M in 10 years and earn P12-M every year after the achieving ROI.
That is just part of the benefits the LGU will reap.
Irrigating rice farms would mean greater productivity and this is supported by data gathered when I was still Secretary of the Department of Agriculture.
Farmers’ production doubled when provided with sufficient irrigation water.
Meaning, from 3-metric tons per hectare once a year, they could harvest at least 6-metric tons per hectare and since they will harvest twice a year, that means an additional production of 9 metric tons.
Kwentahin natin.
Twelve metric tons per hectare per year multiplied by P12 per kilo equals P144,000. Deduct the P12,000 irrigation fee and the farmer will have P132,000.
Since they will irrigate 1,000-hectares, the whole project will generate for the town’s economy P144-M every year.
That does not even include the ripple effects like jobs and business opportunities created.
Kaya? Of course, kakayanin. You ask the farmers who have benefitted from the Solar-Powered Irrigation Systems already completed.
So, on Feb. 1, MinDA economics team will proceed to Taraka to start the ground work on the establishment of the Economic Enterprise Office for the town.
By mid-March, the ball will start rolling and by 2021, Taraka could be the envy of every other local government unit which for long has relied on the national government for almost everything.
This is the Taraka Development Template and we will replicate this all over Mindanao where the Local Government Leaders are pro-active, daring and visionary.
(First four photos show completed SPIS under the DA while the remaining photos taken by MinDA Media Group show Taraka River and LGU officials inspecting a solar-powered irrigation system in Palma Perez, Mlang, Cotabato.)
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