DAR Bicol regional director Luis Bueno, Jr. said Barangay Sagawsawan of this town will benefit from CIS initiated by the DAR to address the problems encountered by the agricultural sector in their area which is susceptible to drought and the El Niño phenomenon.
He added that Sagawsawan CIS was completed after a year since its groundbreaking on April 10, 2013 and now turned-over to the Sagawsawan-Mobo Irrigators Association through a tripartite agreement and effort of the DAR, Mobo municipal government and the National Irrigation Administration (NIA).
Bueno said that 40 percent of the Php 2.7 million was funded through DAR's Agrarian Reform Infrastructure Support Project Phase III (ARISP III) and 60 percent through equity
provided by the LGU of Mobo. NIA provided technical assistance and acts as the project's implementing agency.
Bueno added that the Communal Irrigation System which is a worthy convergence of efforts of DAR, Mobo and NIA will bring a positive impact to the food security program of the government and will help boost the economic development of the country.
"The project gave us a flow of life but we must conserve water so that more residents and farmers will benefit from it," Mobo Mayor Percival Castillo said during the turnover ceremony.
NIA Irrigation Engineer Helsy Bermudez said the completed CIS is expected to improve the crop productivity of the farmer-residents in the area as it could supply water, particularly to Agrarian Reform Communities (ARCs) in Barangays Lalaguna, Umabay Interior and Exterior, and Pinamalatican.
CIS will also serve as an avenue for strengthening people's organizations (POs) and improving connectivity between and among POs, cooperatives, resource institutions and business partners that are in the locality. PNA
http://www.manilatimes.net/p2-7m-govt-project-irrigates-100-hectare-farmland-in-masbate/102040/'