Prov’l gov’t.to conduct cloud seeding if no heavy rains until May

The Provincial Government of Bohol (PGBh) has planned to conduct another round of Cloud Seeding Operations (CSOs) in May after the standing crops would be completely harvested and the rainfall conditions in the province have continued to be below normal to ensure that all Boholano farmers could plant rice during the next dry cropping season on May and June.

This developed during the El Niño Task Force meeting called by Assistant Provincial Agriculturist Larry M. Pamugas in his office at the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) last February 18, 2019 when Engr. Evelyn Putong from National Irrigation Administration (NIA)7 reported that the water levels of Malinao Dam in Pilar, Bayongan Dam (San Miguel), Capayas Dam (Ubay) and Talibon Dam (Talibon) could only enough to be used for the standing crops now and could no longer supply the needed water for the next cropping season of rice.

Leonard Samar from Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAG-ASA) also reported that the El Niño Phenomenon is now likely to come at the end of the month of February or in March.

The El Niño Task Force is tasked by the PGBh to assess the rainfall conditions so that the provincial government could make mitigating measures to lessen the impact to agriculture if there is drought or dry spell.

Leon Parac, Jr. CSOs focal person said the task force whose members are coming from the PAG-ASA, NIA, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), Office of the Provincial Veterinarian (OPV), Provincial Agricultural Technology Coordinating Office (PATCO)-DA 7, Agricultural Training Institute (ATI), Provincial Planning and Development Office (PPDO), Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (PDRRMO), OPA, Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Bohol Water, Federated Irrigators Association president, and Board Member Abeleon R. Damalerio – chair Committee on Agriculture of the SangguniangPanlalawigan agreed to conduct the CSOs to save not only rice but also all crops and livestocks.

Paracbared that the PGBh has a standby fund in the amount of P2.3M intended for CSOs which was already allocated last year aside from the P2.5M from the Bureau of Soil and Water Management (BSWM) which was already downloaded to Department of Agriculture – Regional Field Office (DA-RFO) 7 and is scheduled for bidding this month.

He said that last Thursday he attended the pre-bidding conference held at the DA-RFO7 Conference Room in Cebu as one of the purchase requests needed for the conduct of CSOs in the province of Bohol.

It maybe recalled that last November 8-27, 2018, the PGBh, DA-RFO7, Philippine Air Force (PAF) and PAG-ASA had sponsored the 45 hours CSOs that greatly helped to elevate the water levels of Malinao, Bayongan, Capayas and Talibon Dams saving the vegetative stage of planted rice, all other planted crops and livestocks.

Bohol has 56,913 hectares (has) of rice fields of which the 23,993.68 has. are irrigated and the 32,919.53 are rainfed. (AtoyCosap)