El Niño affects rice areas in Bohol

Several hectares (has.) of rice areas in the different towns of Bohol have already been affected with El Niño 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 from the 18 towns of Bohol wherein of the 7,615.60 has. total areas affected, 2, 351.66 has. of which were totally damaged while 2,278.10 has. were partially damaged.
Maligsa said the partial consolidated damage 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 wherein the town of Bien Unido got the highest total damaged of 992.75 has. then followed by Trinidad which had 524.06 has.
The number of damaged areas would include the rice lands covered by the service areas of dams and communal irrigation system (CIS).
Most of the crops that were damaged were those planted in rainfed areas, Maligsa concluded.
Engr. Evelyn Putong from the National Irrigation Administration (NIA)7 during the Provincial Coordinating Committee for Agriculture and Fisheries (PCCAF) meeting last Wednesday held at NIA Regional Office 7, Dao District, Tagbilaran City reported that of the 3,047 has. of operational areas being served by Bayongan Dam in San Miguel there were 9 has. reported damage and of the 858 has. of operational areas under the Cayapas Dam in Ubay, there were 10 has. reported damage; 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.
In Tubigon, of the 489 has. of operational areas seved by CIS there were 80 has. reported damage while in Lila 5 has. of the 13 has. of operational areas under the CIS were reported damage.
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 Reservior Irrigation System: actual – 25.90ms., at full-30.00ms., critical-21.00ms.
She said that they have been continued the implementation of 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 on the next cropping season.
Although we need the artificial rain from cloud seeding operations (CSOs) but she said the the volume of water cannot suffice to be used in the land preparation for planting in all the rice areas in the province to include the rainfed because of the CSOs have focused only to the watershed areas.
The Provincial Government of Bohol (PGBh) has planned to conduct CSOs to save agricultural crops and livestocks in the province that would be affected by El Niño Phenomenon.
The PGBh has a standby fund in the amount of P2.3 million which was already approved and bidded last year and the P25 million allocations from the Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM) which was already downloaded to the DA-RFO7 and ready to be used after it was already bidded early this year. (Atoy Cosap)

PCCAF MEETING. Engr. Evelyn Putong (standing with mic) from the National Irrigation Administration ( NIA) 7 during the Provincial Coordinating Committee for Agriculture and Fisheries (PCCAF) meeting last Wednesday held at the NIA 7, Dao District, Tagbilaran City reported the irrigation systems situation in the province of Bohol. Photo by Rowena Dante-OPA staff