A sugar leader is appealing to the Negros Occidental provincial government to declare a state of calamity so it can buy an airplane for cloud seeding to induce rain amid the worsening drought brought on by the El Niño phenomenon.
Manuel Lamata, United Sugar Producers Federation (UNIFED) president, issued the appeal to the provincial government officials led by Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson and Vice Gov. Jeffrey Ferrer on Friday, April 19.
“Our sugar industry needs rain now. This will be the same problem next year so the provincial government should be ready to help the Island of Negros,” he said.
“We should not wait for Manila to help us, we should help ourselves, he said.
The sugar industry losses have reached millions of pesos because of the drought, Lamata pointed out.
The Bureau of Soils and Water Management has recommended against cloud seeding in Negros Occidental saying its studies show that the province has no seedable clouds at this time.*