Until April 21, the users of INDAP Maule, who are dedicated to the Chilean corn sector, will have a deadline to apply for projects to the call for competition of the Intrapredial Irrigation Program promoted by this agricultural institution.

This was announced by the Seremi (Secretary) of Agriculture, Ana Muñoz, the deputy National Director of INDAP César Rodríguez and a regional director of INDAP, Luis Gonzalez.

The Seremi of Agriculture, Ana Muñoz made an invitation to the corn producers to take advantage of this instrument and the resources available to improve irrigation on their farms. “We want, together with INDAP, to make an invitation to the small corn producers of the Maule region to apply for this intrapredial irrigation contest for corn producers. There is an amount of 150 million pesos available. Projects can be submitted until April 21 for which they must approach their irrigation consultants who are registered in the INDAP registry. This is a very important opportunity since optimizing irrigation is an element to improve the productivity of the item and that is the objective of the aid that the Ministry of Agriculture makes available to farmers, in this case, with a focus on the corn item. The other important factor to consider is that the results will be on May 31, therefore it will be quickly resolved and put in place, so everyone is invited to participate.”

Luis Gonzalez, a regional director of INDAP, indicated that in this contest, farmers will be able to submit projects to execute technificaation works such as, spraying and total coverage. Drip irrigation systems and Californian adduction projects can also be executed, as long as the soils have been leveled.

The contest is focused on the INDAP area agencies of Curicó, covering the communes of Teno, Romeral, Rauco, Sagrada Familia, Molina and Curicó. Also included is the Licantén area agency that includes the communes of Licantén, Vichuquén and Hualañé. The area agency of Linares, with the communes of Linares, Yerbas Buenas and Colbún, as well as San Javier with the communes of San Javier and Villa Alegre, besides the area agencies of Curepto and San Clemente with their communes respectively, will all enroll.

The national deputy director of INDAP, César Rodríguez stressed that irrigation is a fundamental axis of INDAP management, so the institution has focused on important resources to make irrigation by small producers more efficient through improvements in infrastructure, accumulation and distribution.

“Today, more than irrigation, we are talking about water, its conservation, its preservation and its sustainability. And in that sense the message for farmers, especially for farmers who have irrigation water, is efficiency, first: allowing water to be used efficiently. The second concept, regarding the attacks and the difficulties that climate change has been generating for us, is savings. We are looking for an agriculture (in Chile) that requires varieties, species, much more sustainable ways and that incorporates water not only in this concept of efficiency, but with the concept of savings to give it the necessary sustainability so that these same resources can continue to be used by future generations,” said César Rodríguez.

Source: Miniagri.gob.cl