NIA Regon 5 has new Regional Director

Submitted by region5_admin on Thu, 2014-09-11 10:42

By: JUAN ESCANDOR JR.

NAGA CITY— After almost seven years serving the National Irrigation Administration, Regional Director William Ragodon turned over Monday the regional office of the NIA to new Bicol Regional Irrigation Director Vicente Vicmudo.

Ragodon’s new assignment is Region IV-A while Vicmudo’s former assignment was Region I. Ragodon in the simple ceremony held in front of the newly built farmer’s training center inside the NIA compound in Panganiban Drive here thanked his colleagues and the media for the support he got while leading the regional office here.
“I hope my contributions to the welfare of the farmers are more than enough,” he said. Ragodon said among the projects he turned over to the new regional director are small-scale irrigation projects all over Bicol with a total cost of P500 million and another P100 million worth of water impounding projects. He said he was happy the farmer’s training center has been completed under his term. Ragodon said during his term as Bicol NIA regional director he was able to increase the irrigation in the region by 5% that he said was “already remarkable.”
Vicmudo said he shares Ragodon of bringing back the “glory of NIA” even as he said he left his previous assignment that he described a “virtual paradise” because he was loved there.
He said he would finish uncompleted projects Ragodon left and make innovations as he goes along the way.

Vicmudo said it will be a big challenge for him regarding the irrigation development in Bicol because it has only developed from 54-56% of the irrigable areas. Vicmundo said that the NIA here still needs a big amount of money to develop the full potential of rice production in the region. He said as strategy to meet the targets of irrigation development in Bicol he will rely heavily on the help of the congressmen and that he hopes the national government will “vigorously support the irrigation program.” “Without growth in agriculture, we can hardly achieve national development,” Vicmudo said.