Cloud seeding suspended; resumption not known
The Royhle Airways Chartered Inc., the winning bidder of the 43-hour Cloud Seeding Operations (CSOs) in the province of Bohol has suspended operations.
Leon Parac, Jr., cloud seeding focal person bared that last Monday the Royhle Airways sent a letter to the Department of Agriculture – Regional Field Office (DA-RFO) 7 informing the suspension of operations due to non-availability of airplane.
It may be recalled that on November 21, 2019, the left engine of the aircraft incurred mechanical trouble and since then the plane remains unfixed.
Meanwhile, the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) and the DA-RFO7 have no knowledge on the resumption of operations.
Parac said 30.38 hrs. of seeding operations has been utilized since the contract for CSO started on October 19,2019. The remaining 12.22 hours of the total 43 hours is yet to be completed
Beforehand, the Royhle Airways set the timeline for completion of operations on November 30, 2019.
Delay of operations as earlier cited by Parac includes strict implementation of the new policy at the Bohol Panglao International Airport. It was highly noted that members of the cloud seeding team would undergo a thorough inspection at the airport. Factors causing the delay of CSO also include absence of seedable clouds and engine trouble of the plane used.
The conduct of the operations has been asked by the irrigators associations and other Boholano farmers to save the standing crops and the land preparations for the next cropping season.
The National Irrigation Administration had reported that the water elevations of the four dams: Malinao Dam in Pilar, Bayongan Dam in San Miguel, Capayas Dam in Ubay and Zamora Dam in Talibon have increased due to the CSOs and the occurrence of rain in other areas of the province.
The P2.5 million CSO is funded by the Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM) coursed through for the implementation of the DA-RFO7 and the Provincial Government of Bohol (PGBh) through the OPA. (AtoyCosap)
