Kapangan, Benguet — Improvement of agricultural production and income among farmers in this town will be felt with the recent turn-over of a Cayapes Communal Irrigation System (CIS) by the National Irrigation Administration Cordillera (NIA-CAR).
Funded under the Extension/Expansion of Existing Communal Irrigation System (EEECIS) CY 2020, Cayapes CIS was completed in August in time for the cropping season. The Cayapes Kapangan Irrigators’ Association will now be in charge in the operation and maintenance of the irrigation system.
With the new irrigation system 13 hectares of agricultural land and 45 farmers will be benefitted. Other facilities of the irrigation system were earlier funded and constructed in 2012 and 2015.
The main features of the irrigation system funded this year include 320-meter concrete canal, more than one- kilometer HDPE pipelines, 3 reservoir tanks and other structures.
“As the irrigation system is already turned over to the association, policies must be crafted in relation to the use and maintenance of the facilities such as regular cleaning of the canals,” said Paulita Yagyagan of NIA who delivered the message of NIA-CAR Regional Manager Benito Espique, Jr.
Municipal Mayor Manny Fermin encouraged farmers and the community to conduct more planting activities to protect the environment and water sources during the turnover and acceptance ceremony of the Cayapes Communal Irrigation System (CIS) on November 24, 2020 in Brgy. Cayapes.
Fermin encouraged his constituents to plant trees, fruit bearing or forest trees, as the previous calamities are reminders that God has given us the responsibility as stewards of the land. He also urged the irrigators’ association to work as one in the maintenance of the irrigation system.
Meanwhile, Engr. Godofredo Velaque, Provincial Head of NIA Benguet Satellite Office, said that Cayapes CIS is one the 26 irrigation projects for 2020. He added that for CY 2021, the province has 28 projects with a total allocation of P95.423 million distributed in the different municipalities of Benguet.
(OIC Joe Manzano, RPN DZBS Baguio with reports and photo courtesy of NIA-CAR)