Despite the claim that rice production in the municipality of Baungon, Bukidnon has decreased due to the siphoning of water of the town’s irrigation canal by a bulk water supplier, there was actually an increase in land converted to rice farm, a National Irrigation Administration-10 (NIA-10) official said.
Engr. Kienzel Glenn Carrillo, officer-in-charge of NIA-10’s Bubunawan River Irrigation System office based in Baungon, said in an interview that from 2013 to 2018, land devoted to rice production in Baungon has gone up from 132 hectares in 2013 to 212 hectares in 2018.
In 2014, it went further up by 159 hectares, but the number of hectares has remained the same the following year. Land used for rice production has declined to 151 hectares in 2016, but rose again in 2017 by 194 hectares.
Baungon has a total land area of 32,834 hectares.
Per data from NIA-10, the Bubunawan RIS, servicing at least six Baungon villages, has a total irrigated area of 194.56 hectares for rice, 53 hectares for annual crops, and four hectares for other crops.
Recently, lawyer Ernie Palanan alleged that Rio Verde Water Consortium Inc.’s tapping of water from NIA-10’s irrigation canal in Baungon has caused the drop in rice production in said town.
Incidentally, Palanan is the election officer of Surigao del Sur. (davaotoday.com)
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