P10 M El Nino mitigation

Gov. Aumentado asks BSWM to fund

P7.5M cloud seeding for Oct-Mar ‘24

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, July 6, (PIA) –With agricultural losses comprising damaged crops and lost opportunities climbing to P110 million already, Gov. Erico Aristotle C. Aumentado sees an intervention in cloud seeding operations starting this month as a necessary strategy to help mitigate the losses brought about by the dry spell.

And with a P2.5 million allocation from its 70% calamity funds, Aumentado still thinks an additional P7.5 million is necessary to complete the cloud seeding operations to for the second half of the year in Bohol

With this, the governor is requesting from the Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM the other P7.5M to imminent and salvage the damage that the incoming El Niño phenomenon will bring to the agriculture and fisheries sector of the Province of Bohol.

It may be recalled that the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) has forecast the likelihood for El Niño to occur beginning May to July 2023 and with an 82% to 93% probability in December 2023 to February 2024.

The El Niño, short for El Nino Southern Oscillation, is known to increase the likelihood of below-normal rainfall conditions, which can bring negative impacts such as drought, shortage of food supply and the natural consequence iof rise in prices of basic commodities.

As of June 2, 2023, reports from the Municipal Agriculture Offices of the 41 LGUs showed that 71.5 hectares of crops have been affected by the limited rainfall.

This includes 11.1 hectares of rice, 3 hectares of corn, and 57.3 hectares of High Value Crops Development Program (HVCDP) commodities.

The Office of the Provincial Agriculture (OPA) has initially pegged the loss and damage to crops at approximately P110M: P4M in damage to crops and another P106 M of missed opportunities for commodities that were not planted due to the low rainfall in the initial stage of the dry spell.

The OPA said this has already affected 2,055 farmers cultivating a total area of 1,351 hectares.

This, as Alburquerque, Corella, Cortes, Inabanga, Loon, Pres. CPG and Sagbayan have yet to submit their agricultural damage reports as yet.

Initially, the Water Resources Management Division of the Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM) has recently conducted a pre-cloud seeding assessment and site validation of Malinao, Bayongan, Capayas and Zamora Dams.

In its assessment, the BSWM recommended for cloud seeding operations as early as this month, to replenish the water level of the dams which supply irrigation to 9,926 hectares of the programmed rice areas under the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) in preparation for the next cropping season.

BSWM also said that the projection of dam levels when the dry season cropping starts in October 2023-March 2024 may be insufficient to cater the whole program areas.

Earlier too, Governor Aumentado has bared that Bohol has allocated P2.5M for cloud seeding operations.

The amount however is barely enough for 1 set of cloud seeding operations to be conducted in 45 days spread from July to September.

The dry season cropping starts by October and, more cloud seeding operations are needed for the next six months.

For this, the governor, in a letter to the BSWM has requested for an allocation of P7.5M more for cloud seeding operations for the next 135 days, from October 2023-March 2024.

And to put more weight into the executive request, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan joint Committees on Agriculture, with Committee on Finance, Budget and Appropriations and Peace and Order and Public Safety, in its meeting July 4, has recommended for the passage of a resolution requesting the Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM) to fund the conduct of additional cloud seeding operations for the second half of the year 2023, to mitigate the impact of livelihood of affected farmers and inland fisher folk in Bohol. (PIA-7/Bohol)

SMART IRRIGATION. NIA-7 Regional manager Reyne Ugay explains that with irrigation water at risk with the El Nino, NIA would be managing strategic opening of irrigation sluice gates like this in Caboy Clarin, to water enough for the crop needs until it can already survive, so other cluster farms can also get irrigation services. (PIABohol/NIA-7)

WHILE ITS THERE. Bohol rice farmers take the opportunity to plant with the rains still filling up the paddies, as by August, PAG-ASA has forecast the effects of El Nino starting, and the rice planted by then would be strong enough to survive with minimal water. (PIAbohol)