El Niño affects rice areas in Bohol
Several hectares (has.) of rice areas in towns have already been affected with El Nino phenomenon. Evelyn T. Maligsa, head, planning division, Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) said that based on the partial consolidated report on damage assessment for rice in the 18 towns of Bohol, a total of 7,615.60 has. are affected; 2,351.66 has. are totally damaged while 2,278.10 has. are partially damaged.
Maligsa said the partial consolidated report came from the municipalities of Buenavista, Jagna, Batuan, Carmen, Alicia, Getafe, Bilar, Duero, Mabini, Bien Unido, Calape, Dagohoy, Balilihan, Sagbayan, Antequera, Garcia Hernandez, Danao and Trinidad. Bien Unido registered the largest damaged area at 992.75 has., while Trinidad registered 524.06 has.
Damaged areas include the rice lands covered by the service areas of dams and communal irrigation system (CIS).
Most of the crops incurring damage are those in rainfed areas, Maligsa concluded.
Engr. Evelyn Putong of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) 7 reported that of the 3,047 has. of operational areas being served by Bayongan Dam in San Miguel there are 9 has. reported damaged and of the 858 has. of operational areas under the Cayapas Dam in Ubay, there are 10 has. reported damaged; while there were no reported damages of the 4,016 has. and 781 has. of operational areas being served by Malinao Dam in Pilar and Talibon Dam in Talibon respectively.
The statement was issued during the Provincial Coordinating Committee for Agriculture and Fisheries (PCCAF) meeting last Wednesday held at NIA Regional Office 7, Dao District, Tagbilaran City.
In Tubigon, 80 has. was reported damaged of the total 489 has. of operational areas served by CIS, while in Lila 5 has. of the 13 has. of operational areas under the CIS were reported damaged.
Putong also reported the water levels of the four major dams in Bohol as of Tuesday: Malinao Dam; actual 151.94 meters (ms.), at full 152.00ms., critical 146.5ms.; Bayongan Dam: actual 44.00ms., at full-52.00ms., critical 41.00ms.; Capayas Dam: actual 33.27 ms., at full 36.05ms, critical 30.00ms.; Talibon Small Reservoir Irrigation System: actual 25.90ms., at full 30.00ms., critical 21.00ms.
She said that they continue implementing the alternate wetting and drying, daily monitoring of irrigated areas and strict implementation of water delivery schedule, information dissemination and introduction of upland rice variety and other diversified crops for the rice areas.
Putong bared that it is good if there are natural rains to come in June to ensure that the Boholano farmers could plant rice in the next cropping season.
Although we need artificial rain from cloud seeding operations (CSOs), she said the volume of water cannot suffice the needs for land preparation before planting in areas including the rain-fed since cloud seeding prioritizes operations over watershed areas.
The Provincial Government of Bohol (PGBh) plans to conduct CSOs to save agricultural crops and livestock amid dry spell.
The PGBh has a standby fund of P2.3 million approved and bidded last year and the P25 million allocations from the Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM) downloaded to the DA-RF07 and ready to be used following bid early this year. (Atoy Cosap)
