MALOLOS CITY - Despite the rising water elevation in Angat Dam, irrigation supply to Bulacan farms is still being rationed, which raised fears among farmers that the hybrid-rice program for the next cropping season is being compromised.

It can be recalled that after the 1998 El Niño phenomenon, dam officials claimed that if the water elevation in the dam has been registered at the 200-meter level at yearend, water allocation for Metro Manila's domestic use and irrigation supply to Bulacan will be adequate.

However, it was found out during a consultative meeting on Thursday last week that the National Water Resources Board (NWRB) has given dam officials the authority to release only 10 cubic meter per second (cms) for irrigation, which is way below the regular allocation of 36 cms. This was despite the fact that the dam water level has already reached the safe 199.77 - meter mark.

The consultation was presided over by board members Patricinio Laderas, Warlito Trinidad and Enrique Viudes III, was attended by provincial officials, farmer-leaders, Bulacan irrigators association officials, National Irrigation Administration representatives and staffs of congressmen from Bulacan at the Hiyas Convention Center.

The meeting was an offshoot of the farmers' complaints that thousands of hectares of rice fields are in danger of having their crops destroyed due to lack of irrigation water.

Farmers from Guiguinto town are apprehensive that if irrigation supply is not provided to their crops or if there is no rain during the rice-flowering stage, a crop failure is imminent.

Romy Guison, chairman of the Provincial Agricultural and Fishery Council, told TODAY that despite the 199.77-meter water elevation at the Angat Dam recorded on Thursday, dam officials were only advised by the NWRB to release only 10 cms for irrigation purposes.

"This decision by the NWRB indicates that majority of Bulacan farmers, particularly those that are located at the tail end of the NIA service area, may not be able to plant for the next cropping season," he said.

On the other hand, Ma. Gloria Carillo, provincial agriculturist of Bulacan, also explained to TODAY that the erratic irrigation supply from Angat Dam has also comprised the implementation of the government's hybrid rice program in the province.

Carillo said that they were being allocated by the Department of Agriculture to prepare at least 4,665 hectares, from the NIA planting programmed area of 15,848.91 hectares for the 2005 dry season to engage in hybrid-rice production.

"At the current rate of the irrigation supply in the province, our target area for the hybrid-rice program for the next cropping season is very hard to be attain. We are lucky if we will be able to convince the farmers to plant 1,000 hectares," Carillo said.

She added, "We are already advising farmers at the tail end of the NIA service area to plant alternative crops that require minimal irrigation, such as corn and mungbean."

Municipalities to be affected by the cut in irrigation supply based on documents submitted by NIA to the provincial agriculture office, Carillo said, are Balagtas, Bocaue, Bulacan, Calumpit, Malolos, Pulilan, San Ildefonso and San Rafael.

These areas account for about 7,786 hectares of rice lands, or approximately half of rice of the total service area of NIA for the dry cropping season in the province.