“I am frustrated, disheartened and disappointed.”
That was the reaction of Rep. Emilio Yulo III (Neg. Occ., 5th District) to the report of the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM) that cloud seeding is not possible at this time because of the lack of seedable clouds and the danger of the rain hitting Guimaras, which would have damaging effects on it mango industry.
The BSWM report was presented at a briefing for Negros Occidental sugar industry stakeholders via Zoom that was arranged by the Sugar Regulatory Administration Tuesday afternoon, March 19.
Sugar industry stakeholders have long been calling for cloud seeding to mitigate the effects of the El Niño drought on sugarcane, especially in southern Negros, Yulo said.
The BSWM suggested irrigation and the use of shallow tube wells as an alternative to cloud seeding, but it was noted that many wells have already dried up.
Yulo warned that if no mitigating measures are made to aid the mostly small sugarcane farmers, it would lead to social unrest.
He called for cloud seeding as early as November last year amid warnings of a long El Niño drought but no immediate action was taken, Yulo said.
Yulo said based on his visits to sugar farms of small farmers, the sugarcane is drying and will probably be dead in three weeks.
The crops will not last until the next rainfall with the drought until May, he said.
“We will try to find other ways but cloud seeding would have the best measure considering that its effect is wide ranging,” Yulo said.*