The Director of Agriculture for Manatuto Municipality, José Soares, said that 2,600 hectares of rice fields in Manatuto lie abandoned because the irrigation system is clogged with mud and debris.
“There are 3,000 hectares of rice fields in Manatuto Municipality, but the main irrigation system, which was built by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in 2002, has not received any maintenance until now,” said Director Soares via telephone.
During March 2025, heavy rains brought mud and debris that completely blocked the irrigation channels, leading to a lack of water and the abandonment of the 2,600 hectares of farmland.
“When JICA was still managing the system, they carried out maintenance regularly. But after it was handed over to the government, no maintenance has been done up to now,” he emphasised.
He added that in 2024, rice fields were still functioning well, but this year, in 2025, only a small portion is in use.
“Now, farmers are only using traditional water channels for the plots that are still accessible. The rest are being left because we need people to clean the irrigation systems filled with mud and debris,” he explained.
He emphasised that traditional channels are easily damaged by heavy rains, and farmers just keep repairing them.
“These traditional channels get destroyed by the rains, but we continue to mobilise the community to fix them so they can keep working. We expect that by next month, we can begin repairing the main irrigation system to supply water properly to the fields,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Forestry (MAPPF), Marcos da Cruz, said the government, through the ministry, already has plans to repair irrigation systems.
“For the irrigation systems that have been damaged by the floods, we already have plans to fix them, because if the irrigation fails, rice production will also drop,” he said.
He added that increasing food production in rural areas requires prioritising repairs to key infrastructure.
“We need to repair critical points like these, because we want to increase production, but if these things [irrigation systems] are still broken, it’s a major problem for our efforts to improve food production in our country,” he said.
