DROOPING ornamentals and the biting heat of the sun are sure signs that summer is officially here. But when banana plants start to kneel, rice fields crack and water levels in dams go critically low, these are sure signs that the long dry spell brought about by the El Niño phenomenon is here. The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) could not have it easier forecasting a long, dry spell. It is a matter of reading their instruments, confirmed by the tell-tale signs pointing to the same direction. With this predicament threatening the farmers, OIC Regional Irrigation Manager Modesto Membreve of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA 7) Central Visayas office based in Tagbilaran City recommended to Gov. Erico Aumentado to ask the Department of Agriculture (DA) to conduct cloud seeding operations over Malinao Dam in Pilar town and the watershed surrounding it.

In turn, Aumentado appealed to new Agriculture Secretary Bernie Fondevilla to cause the cloud seeding in Bohol especially in the areas hit by El Niño. But he did not limit his request to the Malinao Dam. He said the El Niño has caused the loss of water not only from the Malinao Dam but in other irrigation facilities of the province. The cloud seeding can also provide the necessary rain water for rain-fed rice fields therein, he added. “I am afraid that without the intervention, Bohol may not be able to sustain its 113% rice self-sufficiency that it registered in 2008 according to the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics,” he wrote Fondevilla. The governor also expressed elation that in a meeting with former Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap during his latest trip to Manila , the latter vowed to support his request and offered to also follow it up with Fondevilla. To note, Membreve had said raising the water to comfortable levels again would mean more water to irrigate its about 3,300-hectare service area where the rice is now in its reproductive stage. He estimated the remaining water in the dam to be “good only for a week's sustenance.” Cloud-seeding is very much applicable” at this time as there are still thick clouds in the area especially in the afternoon, he had observed.