Negros and Panay islands in the next two weeks will have more rain as part of the 15-day cloud-seeding operation that started Tuesday, June 11, a sugar industry leader said.
Manuel Lamata, United Sugar Producers Federation (UNIFED) president, in a press release said the rain experienced in Bacolod Tuesday was induced through a cloud-seeding operation.
The base of the operation in Silay City includes personnel from the Philippine Air Force and the Bureau of Soils and Water Management who have set up equipment to monitor cloud formation conducive for cloud seeding, he said.
They gather satellite data to get GPS coordinates which the pilots use to inject salt into the identified clouds to produce artificial rain that is very much needed in sugar fields due to the long El Niño spell, Lamata said.
“We, at UNIFED, worked hard to convince the administration that we needed cloud seeding despite the hesitancy of government agencies because we are in the think of planting canes now,” Lamata said.
He added that they are thankful to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. and Sugar Regulatory Administrator Pablo Azcona for heeding their appeal.
Lamata also said that his two airplanes were contracted to conduct the cloud seeding operations and on Tuesday morning the cloud seeding in Bacolod and parts of Negros Occidental was a success.
The other airplane also conducted cloudseeding in Panay.
The farmers, especially the small planters who do not have irrigation systems in their field, will greatly benefit from this, Lamata said.*