NIA Administrator Antonio S. Nangel recently visited two Small Reservoir Irrigation Projects (SRIP) in Negros Oriental which he proved to be the turning point of the lives of the farmers in Zamboanguita and Dauin in the province. The Calango SRIP in Zamboanguita change the lives of the farmers as they attested that before, the people thereat could hardly afford to eat rice, saying that "they only eat rice when somebody in the family is sick". Completed in 2000, the project had since changed that outlook, saying, they can eat as many times they want. The SRIP enabled the farmers to plant rice at least twice a year and vegetables year round supplying nearby municipalities. With the introduction of organic technology by the Department of Agriculture, they have shifted from chemical to organic fertilizer which their Irrigators Association produced. They attest that organic fertilizer increased their yield to 100-120 cav per ha/cropping season. In Dauin SRIP in the same province, where before, the whole service area of Dauin is purely cogon and scattered with large lava stones all over the place, the area is now beaming with ricefields planted with rice and other crops. One farmer, Mr. Godofredo Tabijon attested that…...