NIA collections drop sharply to P1.3 billion

THE National Irrigation Administration (NIA) said that it recorded its lowest collection levels for the irrigation service fee (ISF) last year after the government announced preparations for the fee to eventually be abolished.

NIA Spokesperson Pilipina P. Bermudez said that ISF collections in 2016 amounted to P1.3 billion, well below the P1.7 billion from a year earlier, and the lowest since NIA started collecting the fees.

“The 2016 total is lower because of the early announcement for plans to have free irrigation. It was also the lowest total since we started collecting the fee,” Ms. Bermudez said in a phone interview last week.

Silvestre B. Bonto, Sr., president of the National Confederation of Irrigators Association ( NCIA) and the farmer representative on the NIA board, confirmed that the government’s announcement of the plan to do away with the fee next year, although welcomed by farmers, also resulted in collection problems this harvest season.

“Many experienced difficulties collecting in my home region of Bicol,” Mr. Bonto said in an earlier interview.

The NCIA is the biggest organized farmers’ association in the country with around 8,200 irrigators belonging to the group.

The ISF, which averages P2 billion a year, is used to pay for operating and maintenance expenses of the irrigation system and to pay the agency’s salaries.

The NIA charter or Republic Act ( RA) 3601, as amended by Presidential Decrees 552 and 1702, as well as RA 8435 or the Agricultural and Fisheries Modernization Law, gives NIA the power and authority to collect the ISF.

The ISF was abolished under President Joseph E. Estrada but was later re-adopted by NIA.

President Rodrigo R. Duterte said while he was campaigning that he plans to do away with the fee.

The senate recently approved a P2.3-billion budget for the NIA — on top of its annual fund allocation — to cover the foregone collections.

Irrigation costs make up 6% of a farmer’s production spending per hectare.

The Department of Agriculture is pushing for sustained production through the intensive adoption of new irrigation technology, particularly those employing solar power, among others.

However, Ms. Bermudez added that the amendment of the NIA charter, which the government is moving to achieve, is necessary to provide the agency an annual regular allocation for the maintenance of irrigation facilities. —