DA to tap Air Force services for cloud seeding
BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya , Philippines – The Department of Agriculture (DA) will be engaging the services of the Philippine Air Force (PAF) for the cloud seeding operation following last month’s crash of a private light plane while conducting the activity here.
Celerina Miranda, provincial agriculture officer, said Air Force personnel are more trained for the operation and PAF aircraft are bigger to conduct cloud seeding compared to planes owned by private firms, which the DA usually tapped for the activity.
The DA’s decision came after a privately owned light plane it commissioned for a series of cloud seeding operations in southern Cagayan Valley crashed in a cornfield in Bagabag town on April 27.
The pilot and three cloud seeding specialists from the DA’s Bureau of Soil and Water Management died in the crash.
The DA has prohibited its employees from participating in cloud seeding operations.
“DA employees will no longer be allowed to such a similar operation,†Miranda said. “Imagine the weight of a small airplane carrying sacks of salt and several DA personnel.â€
The DA said the operation, which was supposed to last for 30 days with two one-hour sorties conducted per day, was meant to prevent the Magat Dam along the Ifugao-Isabela border from reaching its critical water level.
Besides irrigating more than 80,000 hectares of farmlands in Isabela and parts of Cagayan and Qurino, the Magat Dam generates at least 380 megawatts of power, making it the second power provider among hydro-dams in the Luzon grid. – With Ric Sapnu
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