Pro-active cloud seeding op’ns

to save crops, replenish dams

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, March 8, (PIA)—Rice planted by farmers who risked planting in the dry cropping season despite starting late in December and January 2024, as well as rainfed areas and those not served by the irrigation systems can still be saved, if cloud seeding operations could be initiated soon.

This too as a map showing areas vulnerable to drought in Bohol as identified by the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rice Research Institute (DA-PhilRice) and the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) depicts about 10,505 hectares, which would be a major gap in production should the drought continue.

According to the state weather bureau through Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAG-ASA) Bohol chief Engr. Leonardo Samar, Bohol is now transitioning from a long dry spell to drought, caused by the El Niño, which will last until May 2024.

PAG-ASA also predicts the El Niño to persist until April and then possibly transition to El Niño neutral by April to June 2024.

Since January, most parts of Bohol have already experienced below normal rainfall.

As the ongoing El Nino rages, the drought will affect the wet-cropping season in 2024, says Engr. Cecile Opada, Senior Rice Research Specialist and Disaster and Risk Reduction Management focal person at the DA Provincial Agricultural Technology and Coordinating Office (DA PATCO), during the El Nino Task Force Meeting at the Capitol last week.

During the meeting, Opada reported that based on their monitoring, majority of rice areas which started planting in October 2023, are now in the reproductive stage, the rest are in the vegetative stage.

Earlier, with PAG-ASA forecasting strong to moderate El Niño then, NIA in Bohol decided to reduce the programmed area to be planted, based on the water available for the cropping.

Despite reduced planting areas, NIA implemented early planting, which also allowed some farmers whose lands were not part of the NIA programmed for planting, to immediately seize the opportunity with the occasional rains and the weather systems that with the available seeds from DA, they gambled in the dry season by planting in December to January 2023.

While the rains not just helped rainfed farmers, it also replenished the dams, Engr Opada added.

However, those who planted late have their crops now in the vegetative stage, that is when the plant would need water to be assured of good harvest, otherwise the grains would end up empty, the lady rice specialist pointed out.

With the urgency of food production becoming more and more intense, the DA fears that with the wet cropping season in 2024 starting in May to September and without the much-needed water in the farms, it could result to low yield, crop damages and reduced groundwater level making Bohol’s irrigation dams useless.

This then pushed the DA to recommend cloud seeding operations to pre-empt the possible situation and get to the March to May 2024 crops that are on reproductive stage and satisfy the needs of the vegetative stage crops by September to October 2024 dry cropping season.

In late January, the DA’s Bureau of Soils and Water Management sent out its experts to conduct pre-cloud seeding assessment and validation, by looking at the status of the waters at Bohol’s major dams after opening their gates in October or November.

The joint area assessment for pre cloud seeding operations noted too that in the preparation of the wet cropping season in 2024, the storage capacities of the four major dams: Bayongan, Zamora, Malinao and Capayas need to be replenished by rainfall, so that Bohol could get its 9,370.95 hectares targeted for production in the season can be maximized.

The cloud seeding operations, estimated by DA to be a total of about 45 hours, would demand about 45 days of operations in cloud formation seeking missions and would cost about P5,017280.00. (rahc/PIA7/Bohol)

NOT ANYMORE. Bohol farmers may have been lucky that adopting a fast turn-around in planting has produced enough harvest despite the below normal rainfall, however, luck may not be with us this time, when the dams storage capacities are below the needed water needed for land preparation in the next cropping season, explains Bohol agriculture consultant Rick Oblena, who supported DA PATCO’s Opada who presented the need for immediate cloud seeding to save crops. (PIABohol)