NIA backs Pinili cotton farmers

By Leilanie G. Adriano

Staff Reporter

Pinili, Ilocos Norte—The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) is throwing its support to cotton farmers of Barangay Lumbaan, this town with a PHP20 million worth irrigation project to boost their productivity.

In a stakeholders’ forum attended by irrigators’ associations, loom weavers and cotton producers held at the Pinili Amphitheatre, NIA Administrator Ricardo R. Visaya said there is much potential in the cotton industry which farmers may consider as an alternative crop next to rice and other high value crops in the region.

“We are extending PHP20-million support for cotton development in Pinili,” Mr. Visaya said in support of the government’s effort to revitalize cotton industry in the country.

Cotton farmers in Lumbaan is adopting insect-resistant varieties of cotton to sustain raw materials needed in inabel weaving, the town is known for.

“We are lucky as the pilot site of the project. As long as there is abundant supply of water, our farmers would gladly plant more cotton,” said Pinili Mayor Rommel Labasan citing the Pinili government has an existing memorandum of agreement with the Philippine Fibers Development Authority (PhilFIDA) to revitalize cotton industry.

Aside from providing cotton seeds to farmers including fertilizer and pesticides, PhilFIDA is also training members of the Lumbaan Weavers and Cotton Producers Cooperative to process seed cotton, get the fiber and turn it into yarn.

Starting with a two-hectare cotton farm with five farmer-cooperators in 2016, cotton farming in Lumbaan has increased to 16 hectares in 2017 with 18 farmers.

But due to water shortage, some farmers reduced their cotton fields to 10 hectares in 2018.

Last year, President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s common-law wife Cielito Avanceña visited Magdalena Gamayo, a national living treasure for her excellence in textile weaving and this paved the way to the grant of NIA’s irrigation project for cotton farmers to have access to water.

To date, a cotton processing center in Pinili town is being upgraded provide value-adding products to farmers.

According to PhilFIDA Director Edison Riñen, the cotton processing center can serve 50-100 hectares with a minimum production of 500 kilograms of seed cotton per hectare.

PhilFIDA is actively promoting the integrated development of the fiber industry from research, production, processing, and trade regulation to sustain the growth and demand for fibers and fiber-based products both domestic and international markets.

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