City farmers urged to coordinate with brgys for rainwater catchment project

THE City Agriculturist Office (CAgrO) is encouraging farmers in the city, who wish to have rainwater catchment systems (RCS) in their area, to coordinate with their respective barangays.

“Duol sila sa barangay, then ang barangay mao’y murequest sa atoa, ipaagi sa atoang district offices didto nila ihatag ilahang resolution then i-endorse sa atoa [Farmers should reach out to their barangays for the project, then their barangays would submit their resolution to our district offices. The district offices will then endorse this to our office for evaluation],” Engr. Anthony Roy Cariño, acting head of CAgrO’s Agricultural and Biosystem Engineering Division, said in an interview with the Madayaw Program over the city-owned Davao City Disaster Radio on Wednesday, January 17, 2024.

Cariño said that after evaluating the request, if they find the area viable for the establishment of the RCS, CAgrO will request the property owner to execute a deed of usufruct with the barangay.

According to Cariño, the RCS is a project that can help mitigate flooding while at the same time providing farmers with a water supply for their irrigation through proper harvesting, storage, and utilization of rainwater.

The RCS started as a project of the Department of Agriculture (DA), which has so far been able to provide 80 catchment areas. CAgrO continued the implementation of the project after the purchase of two excavators and the signing of the IRR of the Davao City Rainwater Ordinance of 2009 in 2014.

Currently, there are 500 rainwater catchment systems in 13 barangays located in Tugbok District, Calinan District, Marilog District, and Paquibato District.

Cariño also mentioned that the establishment of the catchment system in other barangays is still ongoing.

Other than the RCS, CAgrO is also establishing solar-powered pump irrigations as well as hydraulic ram pumps to help farmers with their irrigation problems. They also provide machinery for farmers through the farmer associations. /