Author : Panganiban, Maria Evic C.

Summary : Farmlands especially in the marginal sector have a low level of cropping intensity and productivity due to lack of access to irrigation. The most common alternative means of irrigating rice production areas that are not serviced by the National Irrigation Systems (NIS) and Communal Irrigation Systems (CIS) is the use of surface pumps or shallow tube well pumps powered by fossil fuel. To date, alternative sources of energy are being explored to have environment-friendly and cost-effective agriculture, and one with a lot of advantages is the use of solar energy. A case study was conducted in three sites in Ilocos Region to assess the technical and policy implementation of the Solar-Powered Irrigation System (SPIS) project. Interviews using a developed questionnaire were also conducted with the beneficiaries of the SPIS in San Nicolas and Piddig, Ilocos Norte and San Jacinto, Pangasinan. The result shows that the average pump efficiencies computed in Sites 1, 2, and 3 were 68%, 49%, and 69%, respectively. In general, the use of SPIS for rice production areas in the Ilocos Region was found to be feasible with minimal recommendations for the improvement of the whole system as well as in the implementation process.