Abra to be pilot area for solar-powered irrigation system

March 22, 2017

Baguio City – The agriculture department will set up solar-powered irrigation systems in the Cordillera, with Abra serving as the pilot area. The solar power system is for areas that don’t have irrigation systems with a capacity to pump from 400 to 1,000 gallons of water a day for up to 150 hectares of rice farms. Statistics show Abra had the highest rice area all the six provinces in the highland region, but only 44 percent is served by an irrigation system, promoting officials to introduce the system in this province, said regional director-officer-in-charge Lorenzo Caranguian. The Bureau of Agricultural Statistics said out of the 3.9 million hectares of rice farms in the country, only 1.2 million hectares have communal irrigation systems that allow farmers to plant rice twice a year. The rest of the 2.7 million hectares of rice lands are rain-fed only, and farmers could plant only once a year. Last January, the agriculture department launched the first solar powered irrigation system in M’lang town, North Cotabato province. DMS