SAMAR, Philippines--Samar, the country's third largest island, has 25 major rivers, but its rice fields are thirsting for irrigation water.

Most of the rivers have never been tapped for irrigation, the reason rice productivity in the island’s three provinces—Samar, Northern Samar and Eastern Samar—has remained very low.

Compared to other provinces in Eastern Visayas (Leyte, Southern Leyte and Biliran, where 76 percent of irrigable lands already have water supply facilities), only 21 percent of those in Samar are irrigated.

Farmer Tito Asistol, 62, barangay chair of Patong in Calbiga town in Samar province, laments that the Calbiga River flows directly into the sea without being tapped for irrigation. Ironically, the river is less than 100 meters away from his rice fields.

According to Asistol, his five hectares of rice fields only yield 10 to 60 cavans per hectare. The harvest would have been more than doubled if his village, 3 kilometers away from the town proper, has an irrigation system.

Rainfall dependent

Patong and its nearby villages have hundreds of hectares of rice fields which are all rain-fed.

Calbiga Mayor Melchor Nacario says he has for years been pushing for the installation of an irrigation system.

In fact, he says, a feasibility study was already made and had shown this to Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap when he, as president of the Samar chapter of the League of Municipalities, was with the entourage of President Macapagal-Arroyo during an official visit to Shanghai two years ago.

The study covered 1,000 hectares of rice lands to be irrigated in Calbiga and the nearby town of San Sebastian, and the area could be expanded to the towns of Pinabacdao and Villareal.

Nacario says irrigation water would come from the rapids along the upstream Calbiga River and flow into the canals by gravity instead of using pumps.

“(Secretary Yap) made a note on the cover of the feasibility study to the National Irrigation Administration to expedite the implementation of the project,” he says.

When he followed up the proposal last year, the mayor was given assurance by Yap that its funding would be included in the 2009 budget. But no such item appeared in the budget, he says.

No way this year

A national policy on irrigation projects implemented last year in the wake of a rice shortage scuttled the hope of Calbiga farmers to have an irrigation facility this year.

“The policy that President Arroyo has adopted is the recommendation of the Irri (International Rice Research Institute) for us to be able to address the (rice) shortfall,” says Mel Senen Sarmiento, chair of the Regional Development Council and mayor of Calbayog City.

Sarmiento says the government would give priority to the restoration or rehabilitation of existing irrigation systems. “The plan is, by 2010 onwards, the new construction will follow,” he says.

He, however, says that irrigating the rice lands on Samar Island would greatly help in the country’s rice production.

“In our study, if Samar would only be irrigated, we can increase our (rice) production by an additional 1.6 million metric tons. (The country’s) shortfall last year was only 1.8 million metric tons,” Sarmiento says.

“This means that if Samar (Island) would totally be irrigated, the shortage would almost be addressed,” he stresses.

Although Calbiga did not receive funding for its irrigation project, Romeo Quiza, NIA regional director, reveals that some P500,000 has been earmarked this year for its detailed engineering survey and plan preparation.

More costly in Samar

Quiza also explains why many existing irrigation systems are found in Leyte and only a few are in Samar.

“It is more expensive to develop an irrigation project in Samar,” he says, adding that quality sand and gravel are not available on the island and must instead be hauled from nearby Leyte.

Moreover, irrigation dams in Samar are usually constructed upstream, or at least 15 km, thus requiring longer canals from the source to the farms.

“Because the rivers are navigable and deep, there is salt intrusion into the river and we cannot use salty water for irrigation,” Quiza says.

An irrigation project is twice costlier in Samar than in Leyte, where shallow rivers are tapped as sources, he says.

According to Quiza, the repair or rehabilitation of existing irrigation systems would cost about P60,000 per hectare, while the construction of a new one would cost from less than P100,000 (for the pump-irrigation type, which also becomes expensive because of fuel cost) to P800,000 (for the water-impounding type).

Despite the government policy on irrigation and the high cost of developing an irrigation system on Samar Island, some P350 million has been released this year for an irrigation project in Basey town in Samar.

The project, which has been in the pipeline for about a decade covers a total of 3,600 ha out of a potential 6,000 ha.

But what puzzles Mayor Nacario is that irrigation projects in Leyte are easily provided with funds by the national government, even in areas without water.

“Here (in Eastern Visayas), there are irrigation systems that were funded with huge amounts, almost a billion pesos, but there was no water available. One example is Tanauan (town in Leyte), which has a good irrigation structure but no water,” he says.

Leyte not only produces more rice than Samar but its farmers are also better off.