By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

DESPITE the irrigation provided by the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Soil and Water Conservation District and the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. farmers in Kagman say they have to depend on the rain for their crops.
Rey Camacho, a retired police official who now maintains commercial farm plots in Kagman, said in an interview last Friday that their plots are drying up because the water no longer comes as scheduled.
He said their farms have been suffering from insufficient water for weeks now, and they will not be able to produce the same quantity of produce they used to come up in the past.
“I don’t understand,” he said. “They said, the water was out because the filter in the pump was broken. Now, they already put the filter back and still, there’s no water.”
Agriculture consultant Isidoro Cabrera told Variety that the water situation in Kagman is getting worse.
Of the five water pumps that provide irrigation to the commercial farm plots, only three are functioning.
He said it is very unfortunate that the problem with irrigation occurred in the middle of the planting season.