The National Irrigation Administration plans to reduce its target area for irrigated rice for dry crop 2016 (October 2015 until February 2016), and is encouraging farmers downstream of the service area to diversify to other crops as part of their El Niño mitigating measures.

Ma. Regina Mombay, senior irrigation development officer, during her NIA presentation at the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council special meeting Thursday, said that the National Irrigation Systems in the Bago River Irrigation System (BRIS), from its original target area of 9,180 hectares, will cover 7,000 hectares in case of reduced water levels due to El Niño.

The original target area from the Pangipian River Irrigation System (PRIS) of 1,065 hectares may also dip to 900 hectares, she said.

We also need to activate pumps distributed by the Department of Agriculture during the CY 2010 El Niño phenomenon, she said.

NIA will mobilize 12 mobile pumps provided by the Negros Occidental provincial government to the Federation of Irrigator's Associations, she added.

Turn-out gates of NIS will also be repaired and water delivery schedules and cropping calendar plans will be strictly implemented.

They will implement a rotational water distribution schedule for NIS, concreting of irrigation canals to minimize conveyance losses and adopt alternate wetting and drying water saving technology, she added.*KDP

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