Kayapa, Nueva Vizcaya (November 25) -- This town recently received P8.6 million - worth of irrigation projects to be utilized by upland farmers in protecting critical watershed areas of various barangays here.

The amount was given by the Japanese government to fund small scale community irrigation systems in the town which will benefit upland farmers in barangays Tidang and Sinapaoan in Kayapa town and barangay Antutot in Kasibu town.

The assistance was released under the project "Promotion of Participatory Forest Management in the Critical Watersheds of Nueva Vizcaya.

The project, now on its second phase also provides trainings for selected extension workers/farmer cooperators on organic fertilizer production, efficient use of biological residues and other environmental activities including marketing of agricultural and forest products to augment meager income of the beneficiaries.

The project will be supervised by the GLM Institute, a Japanese non-government organization, recipient local government units and the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement.

It was conceived to rehabilitate the watershed areas of Nueva Vizcaya, whose forest cover has dwindled over the years due to slash and burn system of agriculture, illegal logging and increasing upland settlement.