Cloud seeding done in Bohol to ease El Niño impact – DA

CEBU, Philippines – Three rounds of cloud seeding operations had already been conducted in Bohol province last week amid the worsening hot weather caused by El Niño, an official said.

Joel Elumba, regional technical director of the Department of Agriculture, told The FREEMAN yesterday that the operations were done last Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

Elumba said the operations were all done in Bohol, the main agricultural production area in Central Visayas region.

A Facebook post of the Philippine Information Agency in Bohol said that cloud seeding started last Wednesday to save more than 55,000 hectares of rice fields affected by the El Niño-induced dry spell. It also said the seeding operations were aimed at agricultural and watershed areas in the province.

According to Elumba, funds from the Bohol provincial government were used for the operations.

Elumba also revealed that the P6 million budget the DA in Region 7 allocates for Bohol's cloud seeding has not been utilized yet.

Cloud seeding -- the dropping of crystals into the clouds to cause rain -- is aimed to raise water level of irrigation facilities and dams when supply already becomes scarce.

There are some requirements needed to be complied before a cloud seeding can be done. Among them are a resolution from the local government unit declaring that a locality is in a state of calamity and an authority for the governor to enter into a memorandum of agreement between the DA and Bureau of Soils and Water Management.

Mitigation  Budget

Furthermore, Elumba had said Bohol is getting the biggest chunk of the P66.99-million El Niño mitigation budget allotted for Central Visayas.

Based on data the official provided last month, Bohol is to get P48.1 million while P7.98 million is allocated for Cebu, P5.8 million for Negros Oriental and P1.6 million for Siquijor.

The developing strong El Niño, which is affecting the Philippines and other economies is predicted to be the worst since the 1997-1998 event.  El Niño last struck the Philippines in 1998 with as much intensity.

Weather bureau PAGASA has warned the El Niño could intensify in the first half of this year through the summer months.

The DA official had projected that agricultural production in the region would remain low this year because of the phenomenon. (FREEMAN)