NOTE: This story was first published in The Bohol Chronicle’s Sunday print edition.
Round 1 of the cash-for-work program benefited 870 workers, surpassing the target of around 500 participants.
The second batch starts the 10-day work on the field this Monday, May 18.
Batch 1, who started on May 4 and completed the work on May 14, worked in 38 sites of communal irrigation system managed by irrigators’ associations.
The 38 sites are located in 29 towns—the towns of Alicia, Antequera, Anda, Balilihan, Batuan, Bilar, Buenavista, Candijay, Sierra-Bullones, Talibon, Trinidad, Valencia, Carmen, Dagohoy, Dimiao, Duero, Garcia-Hernandez, Guindulman, Getafe, Inabanga, Jagna, Lila, Loboc, Maribojoc, Mabini, Pilar, Sagbayan, San Isidro, and San Miguel.
Batch 2 includes farmers or their families who will work in the CIS across the towns of Albur, Calape, Tubigon, Loay, Ubay, Clarin, Guindulman, and Duero.
The provincial government’s P2-million cash-for-work program, through the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist, covers 50 sites of CIS across the province.
The latest sites that the governor had visited on May 14 were the CIS of San Roque Irrigators’ Service Association (SARISA) in barangay San Roque, Talibon; Cawasan CIS in barangay San Isidro in Trinidad, San Miguel CIS in barangay San Jose in San Miguel, and San Vicente CIS in barangay San Vicente in Dagohoy which are areas covered by the work of the first batch participants.
The governor had also earlier visited farm communities and beneficiaries in barangays Jimilian and Gotozon in Loboc, and barangays Yanaya and Bugang Sur in Bilar, barangay Guadalupe in Carmen, barangay Bugsoc in Sierra-Bullones; the town of Batuan; the Lomanoy point of Catugasan Communal Irrigation System which serves 35 hectares spanning from Catugasan, to Lomanoy, and to Tiguis; Korimo CIS in Bakilid, Dimiao which is serving 19.5 hectares; SimangBalingasaw CIS which is serving 120 hectares and Monia CIS which is serving 172 hectares in Valencia.
The program offers alternative income for farmers and individuals who lost their jobs because of the pandemic.
The provincial government allocated P2 million from the calamity fund 2019, through the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO), for the project.
Priority beneficiaries under the program are the workers who lost their jobs because of the pandemic which prevention of spread requires stoppage of operation of some non-essential establishments.
The beneficiaries would do the clearing and grubbing along irrigation canals, restoration of canal embankment, back-filing and shaping up of canal section, brushing of main and lateral canals, and desiltation or removing of silt from canal waterways.
One communal irrigation system covers 400 meters of irrigation canals and each round will be completed in 10 days where each worker will ideally receive P400 per day.
For irrigators’ association members, they will divide among themselves the P40,000 allocation per site.
The cash-for-work program for the provincewide CIS, which will be implemented in 100 days, is intended to rehabilitate existing irrigation systems, canals and channels of dams in the province, according to Provincial Agriculturist Larry Pamugas.
This will help farmers prepare the irrigation facilities for the coming wet cropping season this year, he added.
The program will also aid the displaced workers owing to the pandemic.
It will also address siltation of irrigation canals and channels, provide cash for families who will help in rehabilitating irrigation systems, and improve the carrying capacity of irrigation canals and channels through removal of blockage in its path.
With good irrigation facilities, farmers can achieve higher rate of food self-sufficiency for the province, Pamugas said.
In the program, farming families who are residing proximate to CIS are given preference.
NOTE: This story was first published in The Bohol Chronicle’s Sunday print edition.