Israeli Agro-Industrial Co. has proposed to fund and build 6,200 units of solar-powered irrigation systems (SPIS) in the country, Piñol said during a recent dialogue with farmers here. As the country experiences extreme heat due to weather phenomenon El Niño, farmers in several Nueva Ecija towns have embraced a water-saving farming technology to conserve water. They have adopted alternate wetting and drying (AWD), a rice technology introduced by the Philippine Rice Research Institute to provide spacing for irrigation supplies. Aside from saving irrigation water, AWD “could reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and increase the number of productive tillers, resulting further in more filled grains per panicle,” said Jose Ariel Domingo, manager of National Irrigation Administration-Upper Pampanga River Integrated Irrigation System (NIA-Upriis) Divison 3. Water in Pantabangan Dam in Nueva Ecija is enough for the programmed areas and surplus can be used at the start of the wet season, irrigation officials said.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer March 25, 2019 21:11 UTC