THE Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is funding a cloud seeding operation in Western Visayas, including Negros Occidental, to counter the worsening effects of dry spell to agricultural crops.
DOST-Negros Occidental Provincial Director Allan Francis Daraug said Friday they are following up with the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM) request of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) in Cebu to conduct the cloud seeding.
Daraug said the request was made last December, and the result will be known soon.
“Upon the approval of the request, we will ask for the immediate conduct of cloud seeding operation,” Daraug said, adding that based on the assessment and validation of Pagasa, “there is really a need for cloud seeding in the province now.”
Pagasa forecasts the prolonged dry weather brought by El Niño to last towards the first half of the year.
The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) has also proposed a cloud seeding operation in the province as damage caused by dry spell to sugarcane farms in the southern portion of Negros Occidental have reached P99.51 million.
Damage and losses in crops, mainly rice, have been pegged at P43.8 million as of Thursday while damage to livestock and other animals, P345,000.
The Department of Agriculture-Negros Island Region has allocated P7 million for the proposed cloud seeding operation in the province under its comprehensive El Niño mitigation and adaption measures this year.
For his part, Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. said Friday that the Provincial Risk Reduction Management Council will endorse the request of the DA and the SRA to conduct a cloud seeding.
Since the SRA will fund the operation, the provincial Government will make arrangements with the technicians and pay for the use of the plane, he added.
The governor also said that at this point, the province cannot yet declare a state of calamity despite the damage and losses brought by the dry spell.
“There is already a plan for cloud seeding and we will distribute, and have been distributing, shallow well pumps in strategic areas because there are water sources that only need water pumps,” Maranon said.