DA-BSWM undertaking cloud seeding operations

By Robert L. Domoguen

The Bureau of Soils and Water Management of the Department of Agriculture have been undertaking cloud seeding operations for the Cordillera and Northern Luzon to mitigate the effects of the El Nino.

The good news was relayed by Fe Serrano, BSWM regional cloud seeding coordinator.

Under the El Nino action plan for the agriculture sector, the BSWM plays a dispatcher’s role in deploying aircrafts to seed clouds for rain.

The DA regional field units are tasked to identify critical areas and locate appropriate type of clouds for seeding. Cloud seeding operations, according to Serrano, must be requested by local government units as part of the cloud seeding operation procedures.

Requests for cloud seeding are immediately assessed especially if there are sectors opposed to the undertaking.

For instance, mango farmers oppose the inducing of rain at a time when their fruit trees are in bloom.

This has to be weighed and factored with the greater need for rain water.

Serrano said local LGUs in Benguet, Mountain Province, and Ifugao have made several requests for cloud seeding operations since last month.

In coordination with the DA-RFU-Cordillera, BSWM is now continuously on the look-out for Cumulus clouds that can be seeded immediately.

Cumulus clouds appear in the skies like mushrooms with patches of dark undersides. The presence of cumulus clouds is not enough though. To be viable, there should at least be enough that are connected or balled together. Thin and far dispersed cumulus clouds are ignored.

The DA has allotted a total of P 2.5 million for cloud seeding in the Cordillera.
That is good for a 70 hours cloud seeding operation, Serrano said.

For best results, cloud seeding is done early in the morning and late in the afternoon.

No operation is done at night. To date, four cloud seeding sorties were already done by BSWM for the provinces of Benguet and Ifugao.

Decision for the dispatch of aircraft to seed cumulus clouds in the Cordillera takes all of the above in consideration including the safety of the aircraft and its passengers.

The presence of other aircraft and their flight paths are also considered in the decision to undertake cloud seeding operations.

As the El Nino dry spell goes into its 4th month in the region, cloud seeding operations have become a priority pursuit of the DA especially in watershed areas and critical water dams or reservoirs.

Monitoring of ground conditions, the appearance and location of cumulus clouds, coordination for aircraft dispatches and actual cloud seeding, are among the activities that have been and continuously being done in the overall effort to mitigate the on-going El Nino dry spell.

Besides cloud seeding, the proposed Presidential El Nino task force action plan for the agriculture sector is also focused in addressing concerns on irrigation systems management, implementation of shallow tube and open source well projects, provision of drought-tolerant rice see3ds, provision of vegetable seeds and root crop seeds, pest management, livelihood and fishery inputs, and direct food and hunger assistance through the Anti-Hunger Task Force.