LA TRINIDAD, Benguet, Philippines - The frequent rains in the Cordillera this month are a good sign of better productivity in the region's agriculture and energy sectors next year and should not be a cause for alarm among local residents. Because of the continuous afternoon rains, agriculture stakeholders and environmentalists said this means there will be sufficient water supply for irrigation and running power plants even beyond March next year, which could help rice farmers weather the expected prolonged dry season. Since the first day of this month, rains at a rate of thrice a week have been reported in all parts of the region, especially in Kalinga where rice production is the main agricultural activity. However, one disadvantage of the continuous afternoon rains is that rice farmers are not able to dry their products. As such, they could not sell their palay yet. Because of this the Cordillera office of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) is having a difficult time collecting irrigation fees from the thousands of farmers since their harvests are still not dried and milled. Over the past several years when rains stopped during the month of November, irrigation canals are hard up in supplying farmlands in the month of March. Despite the huge damage inflicted by super typhoon "Juan" on the region's irrigation canals -- with over P561 million worth of damage to crops in 16,687 hectares of farmlands -- steady supply of rice will still be available next year following the prevalence of continuous rains, allowing farmers to increase their yield. The NIA-CAR reportedly received only P25 million from the national government to restore damaged irrigation canals amounting to nearly P300 million. This could prolonged the restoration process and affect the steady supply of irrigation water to the farmlands in the rice-producing areas. In terms of rice, the Cordillera is reportedly 136 percent self-sufficient with 91 percent coming from NIA-assisted ricefields. Aside from working out the restoration of the damaged irrigation canals, the NIA-CAR, in coordination with the Regional Development Council (RDC) in the Cordillera, is helping in the uphill effort to rehabilitate the region's denuded watersheds and forests in order to increase the water holding capacity of the trees so that there will be an abundant water supply for various purposes all year round for the benefit of the agriculture sector.
On the region's energy sector, the continuous afternoon rains has greatly helped in sustaining the water levels of the major dams in the region, particularly Ambuclao in Bokod town, Binga in nearby Itogon town and Magat dam which is located in the boundary of Ifugao and Isabela but traces its headwaters to the Cordillera watersheds. With sufficient water supply, power generation will no longer be stopped unlike what happened during the onslaught of the El Nino phenomenon in the middle part of this year when the dams virtually dried up and stopped producing power, resulting in rotating power outages.
