BOHOL has attained 113 percent rice self-sufficiency as early as 2008. But Gov. Erico Aumentado does not want to rest on his laurels. Instead, he is pushing for more irrigation projects to sustain the momentum, feed a growing population and in the process, make Bohol the rice granary of Central Visayas. With the Bohol Irrigation Project Stages 1 and 2 (BHIP 1 and 2) already in place and BHIP 3 already in the works, Aumentado requested the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) to develop three more small reservoir irrigation projects (SRIPs) in rain-fed yet rich rice-producing areas to complement the mega projects.

Aumentado asked Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap and NIA deputy administrator for engineering and operations Antonio Galvez to fund under the department's 2010 appropriations for irrigation three SRIPs in Bohol's 2nd District costing P60 million. These are the Hibale SRIP in Danao, Bonotbonot SRIP in Buenavista and the Benliw-Cagting SRIP in Ubay. “I trust that we can implement the aforecited projects the soonest possible time in order that we can sustain our program for Bohol to become the rice granary of Central Visayas and provide rice not just for Bohol but also for Cebu, Negros Oriental and Siquijor,” Aumentado said in his letters to both officials.