Rice farmers of Taraka, Lanao del Sur, an old town beside the 34,000-hectare Lake Lanao, will be able to plant a second crop in one year with the opening of the first-ever local government-funded Solar Powered Irrigation System (SPIS) on July 29.

In a statement Sunday, the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) said the six units of SPIS, funded through a loan from the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), compose the first batch of solar-powered irrigation built in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

It is also the first SPIS to be established under the Mindanao Water Supply Program launched by MinDA, Department of the Interior and Local Government, and DBP, the agencies involved in the crafting of the MinDAWater Program.

MinDA Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said Taraka Mayor Nashiba Sumagayan and Vice Mayor Odin Sumagayan will lead the opening of the water pipes from the SPIS units designed to irrigate between 600 to 1,000 hectares of farmlands.

“Mayor Sumagayan is also building a Solar-Powered Water Supply System to provide potable water for the 25,000 population of the town which had relied on their water needs from the Taraka River which meanders through the town proper and dislodges in Lake Lanao,” he added.

Farmers had relied only on rainwater to irrigate their rice farms, resulting in low productivity.

“For the rice farmers of Taraka, this will be a historic event as they had traditionally planted only once a year even if the water of Lake Lanao is just a few kilometers away,” Piñol added.

MinDA is also introducing a complete value chain concept for the Rice Industry of Taraka, where the farmers will plant, process, and market the rice they will produce.

MinDA will invite BARMM Chief Minister Ahod Murad Ebrahim, BARMM-MAFAR Minister Mohamad Yacob, and DBP officials led by its president, Emmanuel Herbosa, to attend the ceremonial opening of the irrigation valves. (PNA)