MOA awaitsto conduct cloud seeding

The Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) in the Provincial Government of Bohol (PGBh), and the Bureau
of Soil and Water Management (BSWM) of the Department of Agriculture (DA) have been waiting for the
finalization of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for signing between the PGBh and BSWM to the conduct of
Cloud Seeding Operations (CSOs) to the watershed areas in Bohol to mitigate the impact of dry spell as forecasted
by the Philippine Atmospheric Geo-Physical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAG-ASA) to hit the
province.

The MOA is now under review by the Provincial Legal Office (PLO) to ensure the legality to enter into an
agreement between the PGBh and BSWM. Once the MOA has been completely reviewed it will pass through to the
Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Bohol (SP) for the passage of a resolution authorizing Governor Erico Aristotle C.
Aumentado to sign the agreement.

The move of the provincial government to conduct CSOs is an offshoot after receiving the resolutions late last
year from the Malinao Dam Federation of Irrigators Association (MADFIA), Inc., Pilar, Bohol; BAYCAPA FIA,
Inc. of Calanggaman, Ubay, Bohol; and Federation of Talibon SRIS Irrigators Association, (FETASIA), Inc.,
Zamora, Talibon, Bohol requesting the provincial government to allocate funds for CSOs.

The resolutions cited the needs to produce water due to artificial rains to be used in this cropping season as PAG-
ASA forecasted the coming of dry spell.

Leonardo Samar from PAG-ASA said that based on all data they have been using, some provinces of the country
to include Bohol will experience dry spell condition starting this month of February that will persist until May 2024.
Samar disclosed that based on their assessment on the first day of February, the last quarter of last year until the
end of January this year had not affected by the dry spell.

However, they forecasted that starting this month until May Bohol and other provinces will experience below
normal rainfall condition or dry spell.

Samar explained that weather condition can be called as dry spell if the below normal rainfall condition persists
up to four consecutive months or the way below normal rainfall condition would be experienced within two
consecutive months as the drought weather condition happens when the way below normal rainfall condition would
hit for three consecutive months.

Along with this, the PGBh through the OPA had requested BSWM technical assistance and funds amounting to
P7.5M to augment the budgeted amount worth P2.5M under the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management
Office (PDRRMO). Accordingly, the BSWM set aside an allocation this year worth P18M to conduct CSOs for the
three provinces to include Bohol.

In reply for the technical assistance, Engr. Cecile Opada from DA-7 said that the BSWM sent Engr. Corazon d.
Ditarro and Engr. Jocel I. Mendoza from the Water Resources Management Division in coordination with the DA-
Regional Cloud Seeding Operation Team composed of Engr. Noel T. Cahiles, APCO Roman M. Dabalos, Ms. Maria
Rayne Ruiz and she herself to conduct pre-cloud seeding assessment and site validation last January 22-26, 2024 to
the four major dams in Bohol namely: Malinao Dam in Pilar; Bayongan Dam (San MIgfuel), Capayas Dam (Ubay),
and Zamora Dam in Talibon.

After the pre-cloud seeding assessment and site validation, the team during the exit conference highly
recommended to conduct cloud seeding operations from March to May to impound sufficient rain water of the dams
to lessen the impact of El Nino to agricultural crops, livestock, fisheries and even human lives.

Other than CSOs, the PGBh through OPA has drawn some mitigating measures such as: early planting, water
detection and drilling as other source of water.

Provincial Agriculturist Liza M. Quirog also as early as September of last year had recommended to the
Boholano farmers to do the early planting for the dry cropping season to anticipate the looming El Nino.

Quirog said that the OPA has been catering the requests for water aquifer detection using the three units of Geo –
Resistivity Equipment owned by the provincial government with the corresponding rentals as stipulated in a
provincial ordinance to wit: P10, 000 for the Local Government Unit/Barangay Unit and P20, 000 for private.
Last Wednesday, the LGU Calape Waterworks availed the service of the equipment for aquifer detection in
barangay Catmonan, Calape and at the deep of 262 ft., the water aquifer was detected. By Atoy Cosap