NIA: P200B yearly budget needed to ensure food security

The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) on Saturday said it would need at least a P200 billion budget yearly for its irrigation projects to ensure food security in the country.

“My estimate for us to be food secure… we need P200 billion [budget] yearly for the next 10 years,” NIA Administrator Eddie Guillen said at the Saturday News Forum in Quezon City.

Guillen said the P200-billion budget would fund short to long term projects of the agency such as the construction of high dams, restoration projects, solar pump irrigation initiatives, and water impounding projects.

The NIA chief disclosed that the agency already proposed a P200 billion to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for next year's budget.

However, Guillen said the DBM only approved P42 billion due to limited fiscal space.

Nevertheless, he expressed confidence that the House of Representatives and the Senate will help the agency receive a bigger allocation once the budget deliberations for the P6.352-trillion proposed national expenditure plan begins.

The DBM is targeting to submit to Congress the proposed budget next year a week after the third State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on July 22.

For 2024, the NIA received a P70.22-billion allocation under this year’s General Appropriations Act.

Meanwhile, Guillen said the four high dams —which stand above 75 meters or with a reservoir storage capacity above 60 million cubic meters— are now up for bidding.

The four high dams projects of the NAIA are the following:

• P8.6 billion Tumauini River Multipurpose Project (TRMP) in Isabela province
• P19 billion Panay River Basin Integrated Development Project (PRBIDP)in Iloilo composed of two the Panay High Dam, the Panay Afterbay Dam; a high line canal; and a floodway component
• the P22.7 billion Ilocos Norte-Ilocos Sur-Abra Irrigation Project II (INISAIP II) and
• the P9 billion Ilocos Sur Transbasin Project

Marocs said he wants the high dams finished by the end of his term in 2028.