Manila, Sept. 17 -- The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) is preparing to adopt a significantly larger estimate of the country's potentially irrigable land, a change that could reset its development targets and require bigger funding beginning in 2028.

During the Senate hearing on NIA's proposed 2027 budget on Thursday, Administrator Eduardo Guillen said an updated regional assessment placed the country's net potential irrigable area at about 4.65 million hectares, compared with the long-used benchmark of 3.13 million hectares.

The older figure covers mainly rice and corn lands with slopes of up to 3 percent. NIA's updated mapping widened the scope to areas with slopes of up to 8 percent that can still be served through appropria...