The Department of Agriculture XII (DA XII) is already working on the conduct of cloud seeding operations in the region.

Engineer Milagros Casis, regional executive director of DA XII, said that the agency already allocated 2.5-Million Pesos for the said intervention.

“We are just processing some more documents in order for us to kick start the cloud seeding operations together with the Bureau of Soils and Water Management,” Director Casis noted.

The lady director added that the office expects that by the end of this month the operations will start, wherein a total of 40 sorties or rounds of cloud seeding will be conducted in the region.

“This intervention is part of our preparation and mitigation activities in line with the anticipated El Niño phenomenon,” she said.

Recently, the Philippine, Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) already released an advisory which indicated a weak El Niño and below normal rainfall in the coming months.

The official said that they will no longer wait for the new advisory of PAGASA, and at this early, the DA XII is already working on interventions for the farmers.

In addition, Field Operations Division Officer-in-Charge Ray Embajador disclosed that 9,000 bags of palay seeds from the DA’s Quick Response Fund are ready for distribution to areas for rehabilitation in case of calamity. He added that these interventions will only be released to areas validated by the agency for rehabilitation.

“Although there were already municipalities which declared state of calamity in the region, we will still subject the areas for validation,” Embajador noted.

Meanwhile, he advised farmers to prudently select rice varieties or plant legumes and root crops such as cassava, camote, and even watermelon since these are drought-resilient crops.

The DA XII also reminded local agriculture offices to conduct continuous monitoring of possible occurrences of diseases and pests’ outbreaks since they are prevalent to priority crops such as rice and corn. ### (Carl Ulysses L. Aguillon- DA-RAFIS 12)